Make your own Christmas Crackers

It's easy with these simple instructions

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!

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.

Cracker Marking for Rolling

Rolling Cracker 2

Pull Ends of Rolling Tool Out

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.

Cracker Ends Cardboard

Cracker Ends

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!

Comments

Sarah | June 24, 2009 at 6:01 am - §

Earring, or other small jewelry would be great in christmas crackers!
Patricia Tennescoe | November 5, 2009 at 9:38 am - §

I would like to know if I can order some cracker snaps from Canadianparents.com.
Cathy Caravan | November 12, 2009 at 5:58 pm - §

I love these.
hei | December 5, 2009 at 4:41 pm - §

You can use for table decor and wrap the crackers in paper to match your talbe setting.
Marilyn | December 11, 2009 at 12:57 pm - §

For a more environmental alternative, you can use Christmas fabric to wrap the crackers which would be reusable. Any suggestions for hats that are reusable???
GreenHearted | May 29, 2010 at 1:14 pm - §

My students made tiny origami animals to put in their crackers.