This Is How Long Your Popcorn Garland Would Have To Be To Break The World Record
If you happen to be nursing a sore fingertip this holiday season from an accidental needle prick earned while trying to sew a fragile kernel of popped corn onto a string of equally-fragile popped kernels, you may take solace in the knowledge that your injury was incurred in pursuit of holding up a tradition that's been around for over a century. According to The Pioneer Woman, popcorn garlands have roots in Victorian England, and Americans have been festooning trees with popcorn strings since as early as 1842. As the site explains, German Americans even took the garland game up a notch by dyeing the popcorn and adding in fruit and nuts.
As anyone who has ever attempted it knows, stringing popcorn to decorate a seven-foot Christmas tree requires a lot of patience and determination. Stringing enough popcorn to beat a world record, however, still requires patience, but also some extra hands are called for. Previously, the Guinness World Records title for the longest popcorn string belonged to a 320-meter strand that was created in 2014 in Bristol, UK by over 350 popcorn stringers (via Parade). The over 1,000-foot-long string held its own until one Michigan city decided to get involved.
The longest popcorn string bridged two countries
Before you beat a record for creating the world's longest popcorn string, you have to grow two acres of popcorn. That's what visionaries in Marine City, Michigan did, anyway, according to Guinness World Records, in preparation for competing to break the previous title-owning 320-meter strand. The plan worked, and in 2016 Marine City park residents helped achieve a new record with their 1,200-foot-long popcorn string. As Detroit Free Press reported, 160 volunteers worked over the course of two days to make a popcorn string so long it even connected two countries when it was stretched over the St. Clair River to bridge Marine City with St. Clair Township, Ontario.
Since records are made to be broken, this may not be the longest popcorn garland we see in our lifetimes. If you have your sights set on making a 1,200+ foot popcorn string to overthrow the current popcorn-stringing champs, keep in mind some popcorn works better than others. Learning Here & There recommends using plain (no butter or salt), stale popcorn for popcorn garland. And, if the fear of that finger prick is just too much, you can always just order an artificial strand of popcorn online while saving the good stuff for munching on!