A table of middle aged, single, American women were preparing to eat a Christmas meal in the splendid dinning room of the cruse ship as it sailed down the Danube. The table was festively decorated with a Christmas cracker at every place setting. One of the women picked up her cracker and said,” I believe you pull these and they burst open with gifts, hats and jokey messages.” Taking an end of the cracker in each hand she attempted to pull it apart. Seeing her strain unsuccessfully others round the table picked up their crackers and tried to pull them. A smiling waiter explained that cracker pulling was a two person activity , you helped your neighbour pull theirs and in return they helped you pull yours. Soon crackers were going off round the table, paper hats were on heads, cards with bad jokes on were being read out and negotiations were taking place over the trinkets that came out of the crackers.
Who would have thought Americans didn’t know how to pull Christmas crackers!
