Didn't get enough of the big bang boom over the 4th of July weekend?  Or not an American, and holding out for your own country's Independence Day or fireworks-related holiday?  (Every country has at least one fireworks holiday!)  Well fire up your copy of The Sims 3, and let's blow some stuff up!

There are three great ways to make some noise in Sims 3:

Robot Smash!  (Ambitions expansion pack)
Your SimBots can smash many objects into scrap, which they can then eat.  Or use on the inventing bench, obviously.  Just click to select the object and choose "Smash" if it's available.  Your SimBot will fire up their arms like an airplane's propeller, which is pretty entertaining!

I did some experimenting, and there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason to which objects can be smashed and which can't.  You can also smash objects in public.  Although again, not much logic there.  I was able to smash one chess table, but not another.  I also couldn't smash the big public fountain, which is a pity, if you think about it.

Detonate (Ambitions expansion pack)
Once your Sim gets to level 6 of the Inventing skill (note: that's the skill, NOT the profession) they will get the option to detonate items in order to harvest scrap.  But come on, let's be honest - no one ever needed to detonate something in order to get scrap!  Scrap is literally free for the taking at the junkyard.  We just want to blow stuff up good!

Detonating something costs money, depending on the size and value of the object being detonated.  Your Sim throws a timer bomb at the object and runs away.  Hopefully they run away far enough!  If not, they may get singed.  

Detonation can be risky.  Aside from the risk to your Sim, other items within the explosion's radius can also blow up and/or catch fire.  I once accidentally instructed my Sim to detonate the laundry machine instead of wash a load of clothes.  The resulting explosion started a house fire, and caused permanent scorching damage to the floor within the blast radius.

Incidentally, the sound effect for a detonation is startlingly realistic.  I advise turning down your speakers the first time you blow something up, just to be on the safe side!

You can blow stuff up on the public lots, but you'll probably get a fine.  But who cares?  It's super fun!

Fireworks (World Adventures expansion pack)
You can buy actual fireworks in Shang Simla from a vendor at the market.  Each fireworks tube sets off a different random type of show, so be sure to buy a lot!  

The fireworks will go off at a very high altitude, so you want to be ready to position the camera so that you can see them.  Queue up the actions to set them all off, then either switch to Map View or position your camera on a high point far enough away from home to get a good perspective.  

The fireworks are pretty impressive, and some people have caught some great displays, like this one I found on YouTube:

Oooooh!  Aaaaaaah!