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Original poster

Now- a very important cracker question..

47 replies

BertrandRussell · 20/12/2018 06:57

In my family of origin, you didn’t “win” at crackers. You knew which one was yours and got that hat and joke and “thing” even if it ended up in the other puller’s hand. Did/does anyone else do this? Dp and I have been debating this for the past 30 Christmasses! And I have been outnumbered ever since our children joined the win/lose team. But I still think my way is best. Anyone with me?

OP posts:

MaidenMotherCrone · 20/12/2018 07:03

I’m with you Op. If you had your own cracker and also pulled the cracker of people sitting to either side of you you could potentially ‘win’ 3 crackers. No that’s just not right. You pull and win your own cracker.

Taffeta · 20/12/2018 07:04

The younger DC we let win
Everyone else isn’t really bothered and does whatever

Greensleeves · 20/12/2018 07:07

But....the fun of crackers is in crowing at the person who loses

and if you lose, then somebody more successful than you at cracker-pulling will take pity on you and offer you a hat. That's the law.

SnuggyBuggy · 20/12/2018 07:09

My crackers this year have a customized gift and name tags so we are going with the first system.

ARandomPoster · 20/12/2018 07:15

When i was a child we always 'won' our own cracker. That is why I used to carefully open one side of each to see the contents, then make sure I had the best one.

Now we let the children win their own cracker. And if they get the big end of an adult's cracker they win that too. And if they get the small end of an adult's cracker they are given the prize. Really, our days of coveting plastic spinning tops and curling fish are long past.

We buy inexpensive crackers, then even the children forget about the prize as soon as dinner is finished and there is no long lasting resentment towards the winners. But we all have to wear the paper bats for at least one group photo

ARandomPoster · 20/12/2018 07:16

Paper bats?? It's not Halloween!

Paper HATS.

Original poster

BertrandRussell · 20/12/2018 07:48

Thinking back- I was very much the youngest so maybe my mother imposed the “keep your own cracker” rule to stop me losing to my much older brothers and having a strop. My dp is one of 4 very close in age so a free for all was a more or less constant state of being!

OP posts:

Sparklingbrook · 20/12/2018 07:53

Everyone pulls a cracker, then hats are distributed from the crackers making sure everyone has one.

Everything else peered at for 10 seconds then discarded and binned when table is cleared.

We aren't bothering this year.

MeetOnTheSIedge · 20/12/2018 08:08

Everyone pulls and then makes sure everyone gets a cracker. DD came home from primary school Christmas dinner really upset once because she hadn't won a cracker and no one had given her one, it was really sad.

SushiMonster · 20/12/2018 08:19

I’m with you all the way OP.

You know which your cracker is, and you get what’s inside no matter who’s hand it ends up in.

Silly to do it the ‘winning’ way and makes me think of massive families with over competitive dads and feral children competing for the prize of a paper hat...

SylviaAndSydney · 20/12/2018 08:22

My dp is one of 4 very close in age so a free for all was a more or less constant state of being!

It was this for me too. Hat was guaranteed for everyone, the toy from the bigger end was claimed by the holder of the bigger end, regardless if they’d already won one or not.

DonkeysDontRideBicycles · 20/12/2018 08:23

That sounds a kind way of doing it. We didn't allocate who got which cracker's contents but no-one missed out on goodies.

BarbaraofSevillle · 20/12/2018 09:16

Everyone pulls a cracker, then hats are distributed from the crackers making sure everyone has one

^^ This. If you win when you pull your first cracker, you keep the contents, but if you also win the on the second (or third etc) pull, you don't keep any more because everyone needs one hat, bit of crap, and joke to tell, no more, no less, and most of the hats, jokes and bits go in the bin at the end anyway, unless there's anything that anyone wants to keep.

I don't buy crackers (apart from the ones I got use as tree decorations that just go on the tree every year and probably won't ever be pulled), but obviously go to meals at restaurants or other houses where they are provided.

RedForShort · 20/12/2018 09:34

There is a winner, but everyone ends up with a hat.

I'm on the look out for crackers with just a hat and joke and maybe a quiz question instead of the usual unwanted tat.

XmasHolly · 20/12/2018 11:18

I've never known the "win" a cracker, in my family you invited someone to pull your cracker so it went bang and then the goodies were whoever's cracker it was.

NotCitrus · 20/12/2018 11:30

We're more pragmatic - two people pull, one wins, then usually same two pull another and the large end is handed to the person who didn't win first time, if they didn't win. Ensuring everyone gets two goes at making a loud bang is more important than the contents! (and if someone has the same joke as someone else, they have to tell A different joke. The kids have been eating Penguins recently so should be prepared.)

ExplodedPeach · 20/12/2018 11:40

We did whoever "wins" but the gifts were always redistributed among the children (and often swapped - I always wanted the little photo frames with the heart-shaped apertures!)

Now we are all adults, so noone cares about the gifts, it doesn't matter who tells the jokes, and everyone is forced to wear a hat Oh and nowadays we pull the crackers all at once in a circle with crossed arms

IHopeThisIsAGoodIdea · 20/12/2018 14:13

I never heard of this silly winning it thing before moving to England. Not really in the Christmas spirit imo.

ohwellinthatcasetryprunes · 20/12/2018 14:17

No 'winning' - that's just daft.

If your family does it, why not just pull your own cracker by yourself and be done with it?

frogsbreath · 20/12/2018 14:28

Everyone has a cracker at the table. They pull it and if they get the big side they win. Obviously if they don't they carry on pulling crackers with others until they do win. Everyone gets a hat, share jokes and novelty prizes are passed around until all are happy.

I got two mini usb cables last year I was delighted! Crackers are better than they used to be and the only way to use them I know is the more competitive way I guess. We were a family of feral children though

isitreallymyfault · 20/12/2018 16:05

Since my SiL joined our family we were with you OP. But he is definitely in the ‘win a cracker’ camp to the point of wearing 2 hats if he wins both crackers😂😂😂

CookPassBabtridge · 20/12/2018 16:11

We've always done it so everyone wins as everyone needs a crown, a cheesy joke and a pair of nail clippers

April2020mom · 20/12/2018 16:14

My family love crackers. Last Christmas we pulled crackers at the table before eating Christmas dinner. My family don’t want the gifts but we always wear the hats and read the jokes out loud too. Not sure about this winning crackers tradition. I had no idea it was even a thing.

grumiosmum · 20/12/2018 16:31

Don't know about winning at crackers, but it's certainly possible to lose - you just end up with 2 ends.

Then you don't have to wear the silly hat.

Although for you to lose means someone else has won twice, so it's a good opportunity to teach a lesson about giving to those less fortunate than themselves.

Or something. What would Jesus do?

concretesieve · 20/12/2018 16:47

Goodness - I'd forgotten all about them but now NEED a curling fish

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