Fred Basset by Alex Graham for December 22, 2011

I don’t get it either Fred

Like fortune cookies they are MUCH better if you add “in bed” on the end :-)

What’s with the crowns??

Paper hats a must for christmas lunch in the UK

It was at our home in Canada as well. I don’t exactly miss that tradition.

It was in our home in Montreal, too. It’s now a dead tradition I don’t miss.

Re: the crowns, I believe they might be celebrating New Years, and “crackers” are small cylindrical favors that when pulled apart by the ends, explode, revealing a message , joke or fortune, and sometimes a bit of candy. (It’s an British thing)

You can buy party crackers at our local A&P in NJ.

To be a superpower you have to look ridiculous and undignified….it’s compulsory!

Who else but a superpower could/would be comfortable looking ridiculous and undignified?

You guys don’t have Christmas Crackers? Boy is someone missing a marketing opportunity.

Apart from the hat (always too big for kids and too small for adults) and a small novelty item, there is The Joke. By tradition they are (a) totally clean – fit for mixed family gathering but (b) groaningly awful. There is something wrong with one that elicits a laugh rather than a groan.

key – quite so! Have you never seen the headgear of soldiers Trooping the Colour outside Buckingham Palace? Come to that have you never seen the Queen’s hats….