How To Make Your Own Christmas Crackers

Forget those store bought crackers. This year, we’re going homemade!

There are a few fabulous advantages to making your Christmas crackers at home – you can have them in absolutely any design, you get to choose your own corny jokes, and you can include toys and gifts the family might actually like! 

Plus it’s much  better for the environment, especially if you make them from the same wrapping paper as your gifts.

Ready? Here’s what you’ll need…

• Christmas gift wrap
• Scissors
• Ruler
• Cutting mat
• Craft knife
• Cracker snaps (can be bought online or from craft shops)
• Glue
• Transparent sellotape
• Christmas cracker hats
• DIY Christmas Crackers
• Ribbon
• Cheesy jokes (or add your own)

You’ll need to use scissors and a craft knife for this, so make sure an adult is always on hand.

How to make your own Christmas crackers

1. Download and print our free printable Christmas cracker template on an A4 sheet.

2. Place the wrapping paper, pattern side down, onto a cutting mat. Place the template onto the wrapping paper so that it lines up – sellotape the corners to keep it firmly in place.

3. With the craft knife, cut out the rhombus-shaped holes in the cracker – you’ll have to be patient and careful here, so when the kids are around is not advised!

4. Once that tricky bit is done, you just need to cut out the outside of the cracker shape, which is easiest done with a craft knife (but scissors should work too)

5. Using a ruler, create folds along the dotted lines and fold the rhombuses in on themselves, so they have a valley fold.

6. Pick up one long side of the cracker by both sides, and roll it towards the other end, creating a kind of ribbon-shaped tube.

7. Use the tabs on the template to attach the sides together. Leave like this to help it adjust to its new shape.

Adding in the extras

8. Download and print out our terrible Christmas jokes! You can cut them out and easily add them to each cracker, or if you’re feeling particularly punny you could write your own.

9. Lay your cracker open, design side down, and pick up your cracker snap. Lay the snap over the length of the design, gluing down about 2cm on each side. Leave to dry.

Assembling the crackers

10. The crackers are made and ready to fill! Add in one folded tissue crown and one terrible joke. What you add next is entirely up to you – so long as it’s small enough to fit inside. We chose these adorable elf window tumblers.

11. Once they’re filled, roll up the crackers and secure them by tucking the tab in the middle to its corresponding slot, and do the same with the edges.

12. Tie ribbon or string around each of the ends. You could also add some bells, pom poms or name tags, if they’re personalised. 

Ta-da, your crackers are complete! Now just to eagerly wait until the day you can surprise everybody with a homemade craft!