Whether your family celebrates Christmas or not, I’m betting you aren’t familiar with Christmas crackers. (No, I don’t mean a crunchy snack that’s colored red and green or is flavored with any of the holiday spices!) Unless, of course, you happen to be British.

Opened on Christmas morning in England, Christmas crackers (or poppers, as they’re sometimes called) are tube-like packages filled with surprises like small toys, candies, or jokes written on pieces of paper. And the name? When you pull the packages open, they make a loud popping sound.

My family isn’t British—so I’m not sure how the tradition of Christmas crackers got started at our house. Every Christmas morning since as far back as I can remember, my family has sat down to a decadent breakfast (after opening presents, of course!), and each place at the table is set with a Christmas cracker. Everyone pops theirs open and compares the strange prizes that come inside. What’s more, the Christmas crackers my mom gets also have crowns made of colored tissue paper, and we always wear them while we eat our cinnamon rolls and drink our tea. A fun, festive way to kick off the day, don’t you think?

Normally, I’m a big fan of DIY projects, and I found some instructions on how to make homemade Christmas crackers here. But there’d be no element of surprise if you crafted your own—so I say buy them! Find a wide selection at oldenglishcrackers.com.

-Marygrace, KIWI staff writer

When we moved from downtown Baltimore to the suburbs, my daughter had just turned one. We enjoyed our outdoor decks on our high-rise condo, but we didn’t have our own space for our family so we decided to move.

The first thing we did when we moved was to plant a belated first birthday tree for her in the back yard. We chose an apple tree and selected a young tree that was about 4′ high. Ever since then, we have planted a new fruit tree for each birthday – plum, cherry and peach.

My daughter just turned 4 and she has a special stewardship of these trees; she checks on each one to make sure it isn’t thirsty and she even worries about them when we go on vacation. We take a photo of her with each tree and we watch the growth of Mimi and her trees each year. This year, we enjoyed the bounty of the plum and cherry trees and it was the best fruit we all had ever tasted.

Fortunately, my husband’s family has a summer home in Maine so we planted a small pine tree for my daughter there (we simply relocated a small seedling that was growing in a bad spot on the property) onto a special place closer to the house. We visit Mimi’s tree in Maine every year and take photos there as well.

Our next project is going to be planting a tree which will serve as our family’s Christmas tree each year instead of buying fresh and bringing it indoors or buying a man-made tree. Since my husband is Jewish and I was raised Christian, it is also a nice compromise for our household. We decided on this new family tradition too late to actually plant one for last Christmas (it was already freezing and the ground was too hard). I want to find the perfect spot so we can decorate it with treats for the birds and see it from our family room. I am not sure we have room for one Christmas tree each year but we’ll
plant one this summer and see how it goes.

We had a young woman visit our home a few months ago who grew up in our house.  She pointed out a cherry tree in the backyard that her dad had planted for her when she was just 4 years old.

I think trees are one of the most lovely and memorable gifts you can receive.  My daughter’s teacher cried when we gave her a flowering cherry tree from her class.  A little research on which trees thrive in your area, a sturdy shovel, a bag of fertilizer and you are ready to go.  If you don’t have room outside, lemon trees usually thrive in an indoor environment and grow at a rate which is suitable for indoors.  And, there are many, many organizations who will plant a tree for you in someone’s honor.