The surprising benefit of passive–aggressive behaviour at Christmas parties: being crowned king of the crackers

Objective: To test the effects of technique and attitude in pulling Christmas crackers. Design , setting and p articipants : A binomial trial conducted at a Christmas‐in‐July dinner party involving five anonymous dinner guests, including two of the authors. Main outcome measure : Number of wins achieved by different strategies, with a win defined as securing the larger portion of the cracker. Results: The previously “guaranteed” strategy for victory, employing a downwards angle towards the puller, failed to differentiate itself from random chance (win rate, 6/15; probability of winning, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.15–0.65). A novel passive–aggressive strategy, in which one individual just holds on without pulling, provided a significant advantage (win rate, 11/12; probability of winning, 0.92; 95% CI, 0.76–1.00). Conclusion : The passive–aggressive strategy of failing to pull has a high rate of success at winning Christmas crackers; however, excessive adoption of this approach will result in a complete failure, with no winners at all.