British businesses break Christmas cracker record

Businesses in a Birmingham, England, development district said they formed a record-breaking chain of 749 people popping Christmas crackers. The group of Brindleyplace businesses said the office workers, restaurant staff, shoppers and curious passers-by formed a chain to pop the Christmas crackers, cardboard tubes that are pulled apart to reveal sweets, toys or other prizes, the Birmingham Mail reported Wednesday. "We had a fantastic turnout for today's record attempt and I'm delighted to say that we had 749 people turn up to help us create the world's longest Christmas cracker pulling chain," said Lydia Ellis, marketing manager at Brindleyplace. Ellis said the attempt broke the previous record of 603 people, set by a British gaming company. "On behalf of everyone at Brindleyplace, I would like say a huge thank you to everyone that turned up, including members of the general public and the local business community," Ellis said. "Hosting community events is incredibly important to us at Brindleyplace and we hope that this record attempt helped to spread some Christmas cheer throughout Birmingham!" The feat has been submitted to Guinness World Records for official recognition.