The partnership between these two great companies would prove to be so successful that it went on to span a whole twenty-six years with more than nineteen sets of Tom Smith Crackers being produced in this time, before Tom Smith and Companies sell off to Naper Industries in August 1998 and its eventual closure in 1999.
The idea for these Christmas crackers came from Tom Smith himself during a visit to France. Here he saw small fancy sweets wrapped in tissue paper, so Smith came back to England and sold sugared almonds with a love note in fancy wrapping. This idea was not that popular and Smith decided to replace the sweet with a small gift. Also as his company had merged with a Christmas cracker producer the Tom Smith Christmas Cracker idea was born.
- 1973-1975 – Animate Crackers: This first issue of Tom Smith crackers contained eight Wade whimsies that had previously been issued in the Canadian Red Rose Tea promotion. Although these Whimsies were not new to the market the Animate Crackers were a huge success.
- 1976-1977 – Safari Park: This second issue of Tom Smith Crackers were once again previously used models. The set consisted of ten models – eight of which had been again used in previous promotions. However there were two new Wade models in this set – the Lion and Musk Ox.
- 1978 – 1979 – Circus Animates Crackers: This was the first set of Tom Smith Crackers which were made exclusively for Smith by Wade. Smith had the right of exclusivity for two years for each of the whimsies that George Wade and later Wade Ceramics designed for him, before the rights were once again passed back to the Wade Company.
This set of ten circus models differed from previous Whimsy models (with exception of the seal) as each animal stood on his own circus drum base. Most of the models were in a one colour glaze. - 1980-1981 – British Wildlife: Eight British animals were the theme for this next set of Tom Smith crackers.
- 1982-1983 – Farmyard Animals: Another set of eight animals were used in the Farmyard Tom Smith Crackers set. All these models were new for Tom Smith
with exception of the Goose which had previously been used in the Red Rose Tea promotions, so was given a different colour beak to differentiate it from the earlier version. - 1984-1985 – Survival Animals: This set consisting of eight animals was the first Tom Smith cracker set to be produced in a one colour glaze. This started the trend and all subsequent Tom Smith cracker whimsy models would be coloured in this way from this point onwards.
- 1986-1987 – Wildlife: These one colour-glazed animals totalled fifteen officially named. However it has been reported that other animals have been found inside these Tom Smith crackers and it is thought that these were to the spare left over models from previous promotions.
- 1987 – Nursery Rhyme Crackers: These six nursery rhyme Wade whimsy models was offered as a set of Tom Smith party crackers for one year only. The limited number of Wade miniatures were taken from the previous Canadian Red Rose Tea promotion and re-coloured in the now distinctive one-colour Tom Smith cracker glaze.
- 1987-1996 – During this time Tom Smith used a lot of spare Wade whimsies from previous finished promotions and series. The models were re-coloured in Tom Smiths one-colour glazes and he used them in numerous other cracker lines, two to a box, alongside plastic toys and other cracker inserts.
- 1988 – Village of Broodlands: Ten miniature house models based upon Whimsie-on-Why Wade series, were planned for this series however only the first set of five models only made it into production as these houses proved much more costly to produce than the previous animals and characters that Tom Smith had used in his cracker sets.
- 1988-1989 – Family Pets, Tom Smith Party crackers: This set of eight animal and bird crackers was once again designed for Tom Smith.
- 1990-1991 – World of Dogs: Two exclusively designed dog models were added to six previously issued Wade miniature dog models to create the thirteenth set of Tom Smith cracker sets.
- 1992-1993 – Birdlife Series: One new design of a wren was added to make a set of eight models. Some models in this series had been previously used by Smith but were re-coloured to distinguish them from the originals.
- 1992-1994 – Snow Life Animals: This set was very similar to the previous Birdlife series, with one new model the reindeer and re-coloured glazes.
- 1994-1996 – Tales from the Nursery: Ten models but only eight crackers meant that some models were harder to obtain than others. This set contained eight of the highly successful Red Rose Tea miniature nursery collection with the addition of two new models for Tom Smith.
- 1996-1997 – Cat collection: As the previous cracker series this set of Tom Smith crackers contained ten models with a box holding eight crackers. Once more two new models were designed and in the United Kingdom there has been reports of different colourways being found.
- 1996-1997 – Bear Ambitions, Christmas time crackers: These were originally a Wade giftware line but Tom Smith used them in their six model Christmas time cracker set.
- 1998-1999 – Hedgerow Party time crackers
- Sea Life Party time crackers.
The last two sets of Tom Smith crackers to be brought out before the closure of the Tom Smith Company were the Hedgerow and Sea Life party time sets. They each contained eight re-issued models in a six cracker box.
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