Article by Kim Hawn / Photographs by Heather Douglas

Inside a quiet home near the Muskoka River
in Bracebridge, there exists a labour of love,
brought about by one woman’s mission to
restore some of the meaning of Christmas.
Making quality Christmas crackers, containing
an interesting mix of holiday games, jokes,
recipes, tinkling bells and little glass snowmen
with white particles in their bellies is Gillian
McCrostie’s specialty. She has revived the nearly
lost art of producing old-fashioned, well thoughtout,
handmade symbols of family celebration.
Thousands of her made-in-Muskoka Christmas
crackers are sent all over North America and
even to the United Kingdon, adding old-fashioned
charm to Christmas joy.
Christmas crackers, high quality with very
imaginative little gifts, were invented in the mid-
19th century by a confectioner in England
named Tom Smith. The 19th century crackers
were grand; Smith contrived the idea from the
46 Winter 2012/2013 www.muskokamagazine.com
Article by Kim Hawn / Photographs by Heather Douglas
wrapped up candy he produced. He increased the
wrapper’s size to accommodate the snapper and
then inserted surprise gifts, which included a
host of trinkets, jewels, games, printed verses,
candies, even hair dye for bachelors. Smith hired
famous poets and artists to produce printed mottoes,
and for the outside, creatively decorated
paper.
McCrostie would often think of the well-made,
magic-imbued Christmas crackers of olden
times. She would go to a modern-day store, buy
the red or green crackers, and after pulling them
apart, find a plain party hat, a trinket, and a
printed joke which often had nothing to do with
the holiday season.
“One had a penknife, which wasn’t very appropriate”
says McCrostie. She was disappointed
that the spirit of Christmas was watered down in
the age of commercialism. She decided to do
something about it – and Gillian’s Crackers
was born.
McCrostie and her elves, Roxy Green and
Karen Hinze, work to recapture some of the
magic and spirit of Christmas of old.
McCrostie is aware of the importance of preserving
items of beauty for the edification of
everyone, no matter what his/her background.
Hence, her card business, with gift cards for various
occasions, features her own photographs of
Muskoka scenes. “It’s often the case that, after I
take a photograph of a scene in Muskoka, that
scene soon disappears.”
But the vanishing of the art of making beautiful
crackers with pride was something that
McCrostie could do something about.
There are Hanukkah crackers for the Jewish
celebration of lighting the menorah candle in
December, and Nativity crackers for Christians
as the Christmas celebrations commemorates the
birth of Jesus . New this year, there are Peace on

Earth crackers for those who appreciate the
spirit of Christmas as it is manifested in the
traditions of other countries, like Finland and
Sweden.
And how about crackers with a Dickenstheme
from that 19th century Victorian time,
in which the miserly Scrooge learns to give
and love, with quotes from Dickens’s novels?
There are also cracker sets for chocolate
lovers, for puzzle devotees, charade enthusiasts,
tea or cocoa lovers and more.
The Classic Family cracker contains the
Gillian Crackers-designed paper hat with
images of reindeer, or holly, or pine cones,
among others. “The hats really differentiate
our crackers; they take quite a while to make”
says McCrostie.
“Then there is an activity pack containing a
Christmas joke, a reindeer or Santa ornament,
nothing that is not in good taste for the fam-
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Gillian’s Christmas crackers, which include an assortment of
surprises, are sure to brighten the Christmas table setting.
ily.” The activity sheet has puzzles
and games and trivia and a joke,
with a pencil included. There is a
small Christmas decoration, a mint,
truffles, and in some luxury ones, a
medium-sized handbell, a new
addition this year. A booklet
describes craft ideas, and contains
crosswords, a history of the Christmas
cracker, and a word search with
the Night Before Christmas theme.
There have even been recipes for
cranberry-orange muffins and cranberry
sauce. And with McCrostie,
there are always new ideas to come.
Many Muskoka elves help with
the Christmas crackers. The wrappers
are die cut, scored, and printed
by Watt’s Printing in Gravenhurst.
Many of the upscale crackers contain
pewter ornaments, supplied by
Muskoka Pewter which is owned by
elf-Roxy’s husband Garrett Green
and his partner Dave Rochette.
There are pewter nutcracker soldiers,
raccoons to befit Muskoka, a
nativity scene, a Christmas stocking,
and icicle pins with a
snowflake, snowman, or a tree.
There is even a complete set of
crackers denoting the twelve days of
Christmas, with each cracker containing
a fair-sized pewter ornament
for one of the twelve days.
The third day of Christmas, for
example, has a number three over-
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laid atop an amazing artistic rendition of the
three French hens.
Younger children are not left out. There are
crackers for them, too, with an age-appropriate
activity pack of puzzles and games, and small
Christmas items.
And, oh yes, why leave out the family pet?
There are crackers for cats and dogs with treats
and pet jokes, though, understandably, without
the loud snap.
As Gillian’s Crackers is a Muskoka enterprise, it
is no surprise that there are crackers for the cottage,
with cottage/lodge jokes, as well as a cornucopia
of cottage trivia, small toy, camp songs,
puzzles with pencil, candy, and party hat. They
come wrapped in wildlife patterned paper. For
kids, with an eye to road trips, there are crackers
with a sing-along song sheet, various games with
a marker, a rhyme word game, connect the dots,
and more. She even makes wedding crackers.
It is difficult to fathom how a small, four-room
enterprise could produce such a plethora of
Christmas cheer. Most categories of crackers have
offerings of sets of five, ten, 25, or 50. The larger
upscale crackers start with quantities of one,
but these, too, go up to sets of 50. And each and
every cracker is wrapped by hand and assembled
in the workshop in Muskoka by these three
women.
Nothing is done with mass production
machinery. An early video is available to watch
on the website, which features a cracker factory
in about 1910. “Our workshop is quite similar to
that one” says McCrostie.
McCrostie moved to this location only in
August, forced out of her former spot by a flood.
Any doubts about the new home of Gillian’s
Crackers were assuaged by the visiting of a group
of deer. “Elves and Reindeer and Santa and the
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Gillian McCrostie creates quality old-fashioned Christmas crackers and sends thousands
across North America. She even makes crackers just for the family pet.
North Pole are all very much part of our business,
so when I saw those beautiful graceful deer
just a few feet away from my office window, I
knew this was the right location for our cracker
biz. We were home.”
The workshop’s Christmas magic is sealed by
ECRA/ESA Lic. No-7000286
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McCrostie’s last act each night. “I sign a Christmas
card for each box, and enclose a mint to give
a personal touch.”
She’s happy to share in the magic of Christmas
of day’s gone by with families both nearby and
far, far away.
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www.muskokamagazine.com Winter 2012/2013 49