I look forward to making these every year! It's one of those must-have Christmas Day items that you buy from the supermarket every year but actually are surprisingly easy to make at home. I've written up some instructions to follow and even dropped some easy-to-print jokes at the bottom too.
The fillings are up to you!
What you'll need:
- Sturdy decorative paper (often labelled scrapbooking paper)
- Scissors, ruler, pencil
- Tape or stickers
- Fillings: paper hats, chocolate coins, small toys etc.
- Christmas cracker snaps (widely available from Hobbycraft and Amazon)
Let's get making your Christmas crackers!
1. Cut your sheet of paper so that it measures 30cm x 21cm.
Alternatively, you could use a template!
2. On the wrong side of the paper, make 6 lines at these points: 5cm / 7.5cm / 10cm / 20cm / 22.5cm / 25cm. Use a ruler to make marks on each side and join them across the page.
3. Fold your paper along these lines to make two mountains pointing up on the wrong side of your paper.
4. Use your scissors to cut several triangles along the folded mountain. Make sure to only cut within the pencil lines and to leave a small gap between the triangles.
5. Tape one end of the cracker strip to the inside of your cracker. Roll it up and tape your cracker shut.
6. Use a length of string (30cm) to tie one end of your cracker. Fill it with one chocolate coin, a paper hat and a joke or special message. Print off our joke sheet, linked below, to add to your crackers... there are some real good ones!
7. Use another length of string to tie the other end shut and tape down the other side of the cracker strip.
8. Decorate if you wish, and get ready to POP your cracker on Christmas Day!
Need some jokes?
Warning: Not suitable for children under the age of 3. All children must be supervised when cracking a cracker snap. Pull away from eyes and ears. Pull both ends at arms length and firmly and sharply away from face, food, people, pets and breakable objects.