criss-cross applesauce

Etymology
Rhyming on, particularly with a word familiar to children and teachers, possibly with similarity to lap forming a bowl.

Apparently originated in the 1990s US, as an alternative for.

Compare also traditional children’s rhyming game / massage (rhyme said while touching, tickling, and blowing), which goes:
 * Criss, cross. Apple sauce.
 * Spiders climbing up your back.
 * Spiders here, Spiders there.
 * Spiders even in your hair.
 * Cool breeze,
 * Tight squeeze,
 * And now you have the shivers.
 * Brrrrrrr.

Adverb

 * 1)   Cross-legged.

Usage notes
Generally used by nursery school and primary school teachers to children, sometimes followed by “spoons in the bowl” to mean “hands in your lap”, strengthening analogy with a bowl of applesauce; alternatively, “spoons in your bowl” or “spoons in your lap”.

Spelling varies, as it is primarily spoken and not written, but “criss-cross applesauce” and “criss cross applesauce” are most common.