I intended to make Christmas Crackers for my girls this year and just never did get a chance to get to that project.
It worked out though because I think these crackers are perfect for New Years or even Valentine’s Day or other celebrations.
They are extremely easy to make and you can fill them with just about anything. Christmas Crackers are a British tradition and they are usually filled with a little snapper to make opening the cracker more fun, a joke, a silly paper hat to wear during Christmas dinner and perhaps some candy or small toys.
Two people grab each end of the cracker and pull and it gives a little snap and fun things pour out. This is perfect if you are seated around a dinner table as you can cross arms together and snap your crackers open.
I thought these would be really fun and festive for New Year’s Eve so I went ahead and made them for my girls. Wouldn’t they be great for birthday parties too?
Here is what you need:
Paper Towel roll or Toilet Paper Roll
Tissue or Wrapping paper
treats for inside (candies, toys, jokes etc…)
ribbon
And that is it!
To start just cut the tissue or wrapping paper to fit around 3 rolls of toilet paper or cut your paper towel roll into 3 equal parts.
You are only going to use one of the toilet paper tubes for your cracker but if you do have three it makes it easier to get a perfectly centered tube in the middle of your tissue paper.
I actually found craft rolls in the after Christmas clearance at Michael’s for super cheap so I grabbed those. I lined three rolls up and measured how much paper to cover the three rolls- my measurement was 6 inches x 13 inches.
Next I put all three rolls side by side and taped the tissue paper to the center roll only. I rolled all three rolls and taped the center roll only again to completely cover it in paper.
Next I moved the two other rolls out of the way and used a small piece of ribbon to tie one end of the tube. If you are using wrapping paper, you might want to just move those outside tubes about 1/2 inch so you can tie your ribbon and then remove them completely. That will give you a nice clean tie exactly on the end of the tube. If you are using tissue paper, it is likely too delicate so you probably need to remove the extra (2) tubes in order to tie your ribbon.
I took the open side of the tube and filled that with some candies and little fun tinsel things I found in the clearance section from Christmas.. I used my Silhouette Cameo to print silly little jokes for my girls. I also used it to cut some stars out to decorate the cracker and then a little Happy New Year Sign.
And the final product:
You can totally customize this to whatever you like- hearts would be perfect for Valentine’s Day or balloons for a birthday.
I actually skipped the snap but if you’d like to include those, you can find them here.
And if you liked this post, you might also like:
How to Make a Cornhole Game – so fun for parties!
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