Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts

Monday, August 3, 2015

Pudding Racer's Have All the Fun

August 3

The Great Christmas Pudding Race has been a London annual event since 1980. Teams of contestants wearing fancy dress have to run around Covent Garden plaza while trying to balance a Christmas pudding on a plate. Obstacles such as balloons full of flour and water hazards complicate the task. The Pudding Race benefits cancer research organizations.

Friday, July 3, 2015

Celebrate with a Bang

July 3

Lots of people set their Christmas table with a Christmas "Cracker" at each place setting. The rolled package that pops to reveal a small gift was the invention of Tom Smith, a baker in Clerkenwell, London. Smith got the idea watching young men slip little paper messages into his paper-wrapped bonbons. Standing in front of a fire, Smith thought the pop would be a great way to surprise the recipient. So he experimented and finally settled on two strips of paper coated with saltpeter. They were first called "Cosaques," named for the crack of a Cossack's whip as they rode through Paris during the Franco-Prussian wars.