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"What was the price did Father Christmas's sled cost? Zero, it was on the house."

This quip is met by moans that echo through a storage facility in London.

This describes a joke-testing meeting with a firm that makes products for gatherings. Its catalogue includes festive crackers.

The company's founder grins, almost sheepishly at the joke. But the pun has made the cut and will appear in future crackers.

"You measure the gag by the volume of groans and the loudness of the groans around the table," the founder explains.

The key to a great holiday cracker pun is not the identical as a stand-up gag in itself. It is all about the context - in this instance, the communal amusement of the holiday dinner table with elders, kids and potentially neighbours.

"You want the joke to be a thing that unites the child together with the grandparent," she states.

The Science Behind Communal Laughter

Gathering to experience shared laughter is not only ancient, experts argue, it is likely to be older than humanity.

"Therefore when you are laughing with people at the holiday table you are engaging in what's almost certainly a really primordial mammal play vocalisation," says a neuroscience expert.

Communal laughter, she says, helps forge and strengthen social connections between people.

Researchers have discovered that a lack of these interactions can significantly harm both psychological and bodily health.

"The people you converse with, and laugh with, it results in increased levels of 'happy chemical' release," the professor adds.

These natural chemicals are the body's "happy chemicals" and are produced both to reduce tension and discomfort and in reaction to pleasurable activities, such as laughing with loved ones over a truly terrible festive cracker gag.

"You're not just chuckling at a foolish pun with a holiday cracker," the expert says. "You are actually performing a lot of the really vital work of building, preserving the social bonds you have with the people you care about."

Which Happens In the Mind?

But what is actually taking place inside the brain when we hear a gag?

A tremendous amount occurs in reaction to humour, it turns out.

Employing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a kind of neural imager which indicates which parts of the mind are more active, scientists have been able to chart the regions that receive more blood flow.

The research involves imaging the minds of volunteer participants and then subjecting them to a database of funny phrases, accompanied by either a neutral sound, or recorded laughter.

"In the scanner we got a really interesting pattern of activation," notes the professor.

A gag activates not just the parts of the brain in charge of auditory processing and understanding speech, but also brain areas involved in both planning and initiating motion and those linked to sight and memory.

Put these elements together, and individuals hearing a pun have a complex set of neural reactions that support the amusement we hear.

The Infectious Nature of Chuckles

Scientists discovered that when a humorous phrase is paired with laughter there is a greater response in the mind than the identical phrase when accompanied by a non-emotional sound.

"This activation occurred in parts of the brain that you would use to move your face into a grin or a chuckle," the professor says.

It indicates we are not just reacting to humorous jokes, they are reacting to the laughter that accompanies them.

Laughter, says the expert, can be contagious.

So what does this imply for the laughter found at a Christmas table?

"People laugh harder when you know people," she notes, "and laughter increases more when you are fond of them or love them."

When it comes to Christmas cracker puns, she says, the positive effect is more probable to be caused not by the gag in itself, but from the response to it.

"The laughter is key. The gag is the dreadful holiday cracker pun, and it's just a reason to chuckle as a group."

The Quest for the Ideal Festive Pun

Is it possible to discover the perfect gag?

Likely not, but that has not stopped researchers from trying to.

In 2001, a psychologist set up a scientific search for the world's most humorous joke.

Over 40,000 gags submitted, with ratings provided by hundreds of thousands of people globally, he has a clearer understanding than many as to what succeeds and what fails.

The ideal Christmas cracker pun needs to be brief, he says.

"They must also need to be bad gags, jokes that make us groan," he adds.

The increasingly "awful" the gag, he states the more effective.

"The reason is that if no-one finds it funny – it's the gag's shortcoming, not your own.

"What's interesting about the Christmas cracker jokes is that none of us considers them funny.

"It creates a common moment at the gathering and I believe it's lovely."