How To Create Your Own Christmas Crackers With Your Kids

Christmas crackers are an important part of the holiday festivities for many. How nice it is to share in the tradition with your neighbor at the dinner table – and even better if you’re the lucky winner who gets to keep the goodies inside! There is such a huge variety of Christmas crackers in stores this time of year, sometimes it can be hard to choose. But the good news is, it’s not so hard to make your own Christmas crackers.

Not only do you and your family have the opportunity to choose your own favorite treats to put inside, but easy DIY Christmas crackers can be a fun festive activity to do with children to get you into the holiday spirit. Plus, making your own crackers that don’t use tons of plastic can be a much more sustainable way to celebrate this tradition. You can choose gifts that you know will be used time and time again and not thrown in the trash as soon as Christmas Day comes to an end!

Today we’ll go through the process for how to make your own Christmas crackers, giving you some simple instructions as well as other helpful tips.

What can you put in homemade Christmas crackers for kids?
This is the fun part – you get to choose! Here are some ideas for inspiration:

• Jokes – we all love the bad jokes that frequently come inside crackers. Even better when you get to choose ones that appeal to your own family’s sense of humor!
• Temporary tattoos
• Stickers
• Fridge magnets
• Miniature beauty products such as hand cream, lip balm etc.
• Sweets and treats – throw in a candy cane if you’re feeling very traditional, or choose your favorite candies
• Keychains
• Pens, pencils, crayons, erasers – stationery items are always welcome
• Dice, for those with families that love playing games

With the freedom to choose the things that suit your family best, it can be super rewarding to make and fill your own crackers, just the way you and your family like them. Just make sure your chosen items fit into the toilet roll tube easily, or the crackers won’t work.

How to create your own Christmas crackers with your kids
Now we’ve finally come to the fun part! So – how do you make easy Christmas crackers? First of all, many craft stores as well as online outlets actually sell Christmas cracker making kits, which contain all the necessary parts for you to assemble your own crackers. This is a good option for those who are short on time or don’t live near any major craft shops, or for whom online delivery isn’t possible. However, you will also be able to collect the individual items yourself without too much difficulty if you do a bit of searching – you probably already have most of the below items at home.

In addition to basic arts and crafts tools (scissors, a ruler, a pen), the items you will need for this activity are:

• Wrapping paper of your choice
• Toilet paper tubes
• Tape and/or stickers to seal
• Cracker snaps
• Wrapping ribbon or twine
• Whatever you choose to put inside your crackers (refer back to the list above for some inspiration!)

You can find an awesome printable set of instructions as well as great templates at this link, but we will also take you through the process in a simplified way below, inspired by this great step-by-step guide.

Easy DIY Christmas crackers instructions:

1. Make sure you have everything you need collected in one place.
2. Measure a piece of wrapping paper to size. Rather than giving exact measurements for this and making the process more complicated (it’s better to keep in simple to make it fun for your kids!), you can do the following:
   • Lay out a Christmas cracker snap on your chosen wrapping paper, and thread it through the toilet roll tube
   • Take note of this length with your ruler, marking it on the inside of the paper if necessary
   • Cut a length of wrapping paper that corresponds to the length of the cracker snap
   • Make sure you can roll the wrapping paper around the tube at least twice for extra thickness and security, and take note of this measurement (width) so you can repeat it
   • Depending on how many crackers you want to make, cut pieces of wrapping paper to size (make sure they are all the same dimensions)
3. Tape the cracker snaps neatly into place on the toilet roll inner
4. Fold over the edges of the wrapping paper so that the finish is neat when you place it around the tubes
5. Use a small piece of tape or a sticker to seal the wrapping paper around the tube (but leave the ends open so you can fill the crackers)
6. Tie one end of the tube with twine or ribbon (you can add a curl to make it look pretty if you’d like)
7. Place your chosen filling into the tube carefully, and then tie the other end of the tube in the same way as before
8. If you want, at this stage you can add extra sparkle to the outside of the crackers – perhaps by adding stick-on jewels or pom-poms for an extra special touch
9. Put your beautiful homemade crackers on the Christmas table and you’re ready to go!

We hope you enjoy making DIY Christmas crackers with your children, and happy holidays from all of us at Teachers1on1!

 

Featured image by Nick Fewings on Unsplash