Making your own Christmas Crackers is a great way to recycle and save money at the same time.
I have always made my own Christmas crackers. When I was younger, I used to decorate our family tree with them.
When I had my own children, it was a fun and inexpensive craft to do with them over this Christmas holiday. You do need to start to save the toilet rolls a few weeks prior to making them to ensure you have enough. You will need at least two more than the cracker you want to make for this.
This would be a top tip of mine. as a recommendation if you wanted to create your own Victorian Christmas.
What you need
A quick list of what goes into my Christmas crackers with links on the side to make it easy to grab them. I wish I could do a basket and pop a link to a list but that’s not where my IT skills are right now, bear with me.
- Empty toilets roll holders – you get your own toilet roll!
- Hats, poppers (to give it some snap) and jokes. Amazon link
- Traditional Wrapping Paper or Card. Amazon link
- Sweets or anything small that will fit inside. Amazon link
- Ribbon to tie them up with. Amazon link
How
Here’s what I did.
I measured the wrapping paper by using the toilet roll as a guide. I placed three end to end and marked a line then roll one along and marked about a couple of centimetres (just under 1 inch) after it overlaps.
I then put a dab of hot glue, glue stick or tape on the outside of the toilet roll to fix it to the wrapping paper, so it didn’t move. I also did the same to the sweets and stuck them inside, so they didn’t roll out and rattle.
I then put the popper into the middle and cut it down to fit.
After putting the joke and hat inside, I then rolled the toilet rolls up and glued down the paper (already cut to size).
I then tied the ribbon between the middle and each end after leaving a gap of around two cm. I put a twist in here to help keep things inside. Then I pulled out the two ends. This should give a nice, scalloped edge of the cracker.