Article by Kim Hawn / Photographs by Heather Douglas

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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COMMERCIAL &
COTTAGE SERVICE
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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