Tutorial: Christmas crackers

I love this time of the year.  The lights,  secrets,  the wrappings and the creative makings.  We encourage our children to make gifts for each other.   Making a gift is such a beautiful thing to do for someone else.  A handmade gift has soul and deep love in it.  My littlest boy is 10 and he loves to create gifts for people.   I often find him at his carpentry table or with craft supplies creating things.  

I also love to make Christmas crackers.  The ones at the store look pretty but are often very expensive and don't really contain much. Each Christmas on new years eve our family has a tradition of opening a Christmas cracker each.   I stuff the cracker with goodies and even a Christmas joke. They are so easy to make and even children can make them or help out with the process. 

Here are instructions on how to make your own crackers.

Equipment 

• Inner of a toilet roll or plasticwrap/foil tube 
• Christmas wrapping store brought or make your own if your are making your own you will need some stamps and ink or paint
• Ribbon or string
• A gift for the inside
• A balloon
• A christmas joke
• Lollies or choclates
• Foil
• A paper hat
• Stickers or sticky tape
• Scissors
• Pen

Ideas for gifts

• Jewellery
• Tie pin
• Pens/pencils
• Key rings
• bubbles and wand
• Christmas decorations
• Torch
• Balloons
• Water bombs
• toy cars
• Mini bottles of lotion/shampoo
• Seed
• Chocolates
• Lip balm/lipstick
• Bubble bath
• Nail polish
• Wind up toys
• Pencil sharpeners/ erasers
• Vouchers
• animals
• rubber stamp
• stickers
• Candles
• Minatures
• Pen knife
• Hair stuff
• Sewing stuff

Joke links

Christmas jokes
More jokes
Great jokes
Squigly's jokes

Method

1. Collect all your equipment together
   
2. Place inside each roll one joke,  one balloon, one hat,  one gift and one or two lollies or chocolates.  If they are unwrapped lollies/chocolates wrap them in foil.
   
3. Cut a rectangle of wrapping paper   17cm x 37 cm (for a toilet roll)     
   
4. If you are making your own wrapping you will need some plain paper and ink/paint and a selection of rubber stamps.  Put ink/paint on the stamp and print all over the paper.
   
5. Place toilet roll in the middle of the long edge of the paper. 
   
6. Roll the paper around the tube and put a sticker on the edge to keep the paper from unrolling.  You could even put the recipients name on the sticker or cracker too.
   
7. Place a spare tube in the end of the tube of paper.
   
8. Wrap a piece of ribbon/string in between the two rolls and tie firmly.
   
9. Remove the spare tube. and do again for the other end.  You could tie the ends either in a bow or knot
10.  Trim the end with scissor if needed.

Now you have your own personalised and handmade Christmas crackers all ready for the festive season.