How to Make a Christmas Cracker

I know you're probably reeling from the festivities of last week and really can't be bothered thinking about crackers that you won't need for another 51 weeks but if you do it now, you'll thank me when you're un stressed in December.

(now you could always buy some in the sales if you're not feeling crafty)

Cracker kits are available and are probably reduced now or you can go fully crafty and make yours from scratch.

You Will Need (per cracker)

3 toilet roll tubes
Cracker snap
Nice wrapping paper
Ribbon, motifs and any other decoration you fancy
A joke
A hat
A novelty
A paper perforating tool.

How To Make A Cracker

Lay out the the toilet roll tubes end to end with a small gap between each.

Cut your paper to match their length then roll them up in the paper to get the size to cover the rolls.  Use this piece of paper as a template to cut the remainder of your paper.

Using the perforating tool, roll it along the centre of the paper where you want your cracker to break.

Glue the cracker snap along the long edge of the paper.

Put a line of glue along the other long edge and roll up around your tubes.  Press down firmly and let it dry.  Make sure your two end tubes aren't gluey as you want to Remove these eventually.

When the glue is dry, put your cracker on its end and scrunch and twist it to form a cracker shape.  Tie one end with ribbon at the scrunch point.  Remove the toilet roll tube at that end.

Drop in your joke, hat and novelty.  If you're wanting to use a perishable novelty such as chocolates, leave one end of the cracker open and finish it in November.

Scrunch and tie the open end of the cracker then remove the roll.

Decorate the outside of the cracker with ribbons, small baubles, tinsel, berries or whatever you like!  Just take care not to glue up your perforated area.  I glue everything to a wide ribbon then just tie it in a bow to avoid gluing up the wrong bit.

Put them in your Christmas box for December.