Christmas Formal Hall

Jason and I are slowly learning about the traditions and customs of England. The process has been slow and somewhat more challenging because, we have come to understand, Cambridge has even more complex and strange traditions than the whole of England. As the holidays approach, we have begun to realize that Christmas may be even a bigger deal here than it is in the States. The Christmas decorations and such came out the weekend after HALLOWEEN! We also have on our calendar 5 Christmas parties to attend over the course of a two week period. Last night we attend the first of the five. Our first lesson was that attire for these events is a bit different than your average Christmas party in the States - namely, Jason had to wear a tuxedo!! Those of you who know him best will immediately know that he was less than trilled about this. I, on the other hand, was pretty excited - doesn't he look handsome!?

The dinners at these events are always quite formal, three course affairs. When we received the menu for last night's dinner, "Christmas Crackers Included," was highlighted across the bottom. I assumed this would be some sort of cheese and crackers starter, or perhaps some sort of Christmas cookie (since they refer to cookies as biscuits here). Later, as I sat down at the table, I found this in front of me:

I figured the college had wrapped up some chocolates or something as gifts. When I picked it up to open it and see what was inside, the girl sitting across from me stuck her hand across the table. I assumed that, since there wasn't a gift at her seat, she wanted mine. I thought it a bit odd, but began to pass the gift across to her. She grabbed the other end end of the package and gave it a good tug. The package let out a "pop." By this point, I was thoroughly confused. She must have recognized this because she said, "Haven't you ever seen a Christmas cracker?" Interesting...

Now, you might consider that excitement enough for one evening, but there was another goodie waiting for us inside the "cracker":

You guessed it, "special" hats. Crowns to be specific. The craziest part was that EVERYONE wore theirs! All night long! Initially, Jason was, yet again, not thrilled:

But, as the evening progressed, he became a little more accepting of his new hat.

And, by the end of the night, he was really embracing the British culture - tissue crown, port (a horrible sweet wine that tastes like cherry flavored NyQuil), mince pies (also not good) and all!

After the dinner, we had a great time hanging out with friends and learning, even more, about the traditions.