Make your own Christmas Crackers

It’s easy with these simple instructions
(see the original post for visual cues)

The Christmas cracker, one of Britain’s most enduring Christmas traditions, has become so popular in Canada that you can find boxes of the festive paper tubes in stores everywhere. Each tube is filled with a paper hat, joke, trinket, and a snap that pops when pulled.

This year, instead of buying crackers, why not make them? With a few supplies and the help of the kids, you’ll have a unique set of crackers to put on your holiday table. See instructions below and with a little practice, you’ll have a set of crackers ready in no time!

Cracker Project Supplies

What you’ll need
Christmas Wrapping Paper
Cardstock (2 pieces)
Cracker Snaps (1 per cracker: snaps can be purchased at craft stores like Michaels)
Paper Hats (1 per cracker: can be made or purchased at a craft store)
Joke, Riddle, Quote or Cartoon
Trinkets for inside (look below for ideas!)
Toilet Paper Rolls (1 for each cracker you want to make)
Paper Towel Roll (1)
Ribbon
Glue Stick
Pencil
Ruler
Cutting Tool or Scissors

Step One: Prepare Your Paper
Thin paper works best for homemade Christmas crackers. Using your snap, cut the paper into squares (one per cracker) the same length of the snap, wide and long. Our snaps (purchased at Michaels Craft Store) were approx 10 inches so we made our paper 10 inches square. Cut as many squares as needed to make your set of crackers.

Step Two: Make Your Rolling Tool
Using the paper towel cardboard, cut the tube in half and push the two pieces into the end of one of your toilet paper rolls. The tube will be used to help make the cracker but will be removed after you have rolled the paper around the toilet paper roll.

Step Three: Roll the Cracker
Start by lining the toilet paper roll at the edge of the paper. Mark the middle section with a pencil and run a glue stick or tape dispenser along the line. Be sure you don’t have tape or glue on the ends as you will want to pull the paper towel roll pieces out and will not want them glued to the paper.

Roll the paper tightly until you get to the edge of the paper. Glue in the middle to secure.

Carefully pull the end pieces of paper towel out of the cracker leaving the toilet paper roll in place.

Step Four: Create Cardboard Cracker Ends
Using the cardstock, cut a piece of cardboard the full length of the paper and approx. 1 1/3″ wide. Roll the cardboard and place inside each end of cracker, glue in place.

Step Five: Put your SNAP in place
Carefully place snap inside cracker securing snap to one end of the cracker. Tape or glue works best. Don’t worry if the other end is sticking out of the cracker, we will trim that later.

Step Six: Tie End of Cracker
Before placing your goodies into your cracker, tie a piece of ribbon around one end of the cracker to secure the end. Watch that you don’t tear the paper when pulling the ribbon, but the ribbon should be tight enough to keep the treats in place.

Step Seven: Fill the Cracker
Making sure the snap stays flat, put the hat, joke, treat and anything else you want in your cracker inside the roll section.

Step Eight: Tie End of Cracker
Carefully secure the second cracker end.

Step Nine: Trim Snap
If the snap is sticking out of the end carefully cut the ends of the snap so they meet the edge of the cracker. Glue or tape in place.

Step Ten: Repeat
Continue until you have as many crackers as you need for your celebration.

Cracker Trinket Ideas
When you make your own Christmas crackers you can hand select the trinkets you put inside, picking items that are very speicific to the person who is opening the cracker or a collection of general treats that everyone will enjoy. If you are making specialized crackers, be sure to attach a tag to each so you will know which cracker each person should open. Marked crackers can act as table markers too!

Not sure what to put into your crackers? Check out the list below for some inspiration. Remember, as long as the item fits into the roll, the sky’s the limit! **Use caution putting heavy or breakable items into your crackers. When the cracker is pulled the item could fly out and be broken. If you really want to have larger items consider collecting larger rolls from paper towel, or industrial rolls from a friend or families work place and let recipients know to be careful when opening the cracker.

* Loonie or toonie
* Concert ticket
* Poetry or jokes written by your kids
* Small toy figure like little people or pokemon
* Hotwheels
* Handmade coupons- like get out of chores for free day
* Movie tickets
* Gift certificates
* Hair accessories
* Gameboy or Nintendo DS game
* Small Lego sets
* Playmobile
* Thomas train

Have an idea for a great cracker trinket? Leave a comment below!

Originally published on Canadian Parents