Making Christmas Crackers (1910)

Aside from a short bit at the end (more on that in a moment), this six-minute film is essentially a "how it's made" documentary showing how Christmas Crackers are produced (or more accurately how they were produced in the early 1900s). Even that's an overstatement: we don't really get a good look at the process; instead we're seeing quick glimpses of the components being made. It's all done using machines by workers performing their tasks extremely quickly, so it's not easy to tell precisely what they're doing or how the machines work. We get a feel for the environment in which they're made, but that's about it.

It's worth noting the factory is staffed by a mix of male and female employees. I don't have much sense of scale, but my guess is these are unique workstations (i.e.: I can't imagine demand was so great that there were dozens more employees off-screen performing the same functions).

At any rate, the film ends with a brief fantasy segment in which a bunch of kids are celebrating around a tree. An adult (I'm assuming this is supposed to be their father) removes a massive, oversized Christmas Cracker, and the kids break into teams to pull it apart. It explodes and Father Christmas appears in the smoke to distribute gifts.

I'm not clear whether this was produced as a documentary with a cute conclusion, or if it was intended as a sort of advertisement for the company making the crackers (or perhaps even the company producing the specialized machinery). Regardless, your interest in this is going to be dependent on your interest in early 20th-century business practices and mechanization. The closing bit is cute, but it's nothing particularly special or all that impressive.