Door 10 · Tapper
Bon Bon Snap: Day 10 of Sunburnt Santa
Pull Christmas bon bons (crackers) against Nan, Uncle Bazza, Cousin Kylie and Digger the dog in a timing tug of war: tap when the sweeping bar is in the green. Win in a row to multiply your score, and read the joke inside every one you snap.
How to play Bon Bon Snap
- A bar sweeps under the bon bon. Tap when it is in the green for a big pull; yellow is a small one, red lets them pull back.
- Nan, Uncle Bazza, Cousin Kylie and Digger the dog take turns, each with their own rhythm, and the bar gets quicker every bon bon.
- Snap it on your side for 300 plus a speed bonus. Wins in a row multiply your score; lose one and the streak resets.
Scoring
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Bon bon snapped on your side | 300 |
| Speed bonus | 50 for every second under 8 |
| Green tap | a big pull your way |
| Yellow tap | a small pull your way |
| Red tap | they pull it back |
A win in 2 seconds is worth 600, an 8-second win 300. Wins in a row multiply that: x2 from the 3rd, x3 from the 5th, up to x5 from the 9th, and losing one resets the streak. Everything doubles in the last 10 seconds.
Stars: the three targets
Stars don't lock anything; they show how you're going, and doors with at least one star count towards the bonus games.
Tips for three stars
- Don't mash. After every tap the bar holds for a moment, then restarts from the far end, so a quick second tap lands in the red and hands the bon bon back. Let it sweep to the middle, then tap.
- Every relative has a rhythm. Nan's bar is slow with a wide green; Uncle Bazza's freezes for a beat every half second; Cousin Kylie's is the fastest with the narrowest green; Digger's surges and slackens. The bar gets quicker every bon bon, and the other side pulls harder the longer one drags on.
- The big scores come at the end. A long winning streak carried into the last 10 seconds is worth up to 10 times a plain win, so play safe greens early and protect the streak.
The real story: Tom Smith and the Christmas bon bon
A bon bon is what most Australians call a Christmas cracker: a paper tube you pull with someone until it snaps, spilling out a paper crown, a small toy and a groan-worthy joke. The name gives away its sweet origins. Tom Smith, a London confectioner and baker who set up shop in Clerkenwell in the 1840s, came across the French bon bon on a trip to Paris: a sugared almond wrapped in a twist of tissue paper [1]. To sell more outside the Christmas season, he tucked a little love motto inside the wrapper [1].
The bang came next. According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the idea was supposedly sparked by the crackle of a log fire; Smith patented his first cracker device in 1847 and perfected it in the 1860s [1]. The snap is two narrow strips of paper, one with a tiny amount of explosive compound, which goes off from friction when the bon bon is pulled apart [1]. His son Walter added the paper hats and sourced little gifts from Europe, America and Japan [1]. By the 1890s the firm employed 2,000 people [1].
Almost two centuries later, the crown still goes on and the jokes are still terrible. The ones in our bon bons are clean, Aussie and just as bad.
Read more: What is a Christmas bon bon?.
When it opens
Door 10 opens on day 10 of your own calendar (your Day 1 is the day you first play), and for everyone by 10 December. Play the door before it to open it. Once it's open you can replay it as often as you like, and after Christmas Eve all 24 doors stay open. How the calendar works.
Play now
Same kind of game: Blowie Swat, Mozzie Mayhem, Unwrap Rush.
Sources for the real story
- The Christmas cracker, Victoria and Albert Museum