Helen Riley-Duddin of Oamaru runs Christmas cracker-making workshops.
She shares some festive tips.
HELEN'S CHRISTMAS CRACKER INSTRUCTIONS:
You will need:
Cracker snap/banger
- Recycled card for an inner tube, trimmed to A5 size -
- 2 pieces of tissue paper (trimmed to 1/4 standard sheet size) -
- Outer paper, trimmed to A5 size
- 2 x lengths of ribbon (approx 30cm)
You will also need:
- Scissors
- Sticky tape
- Treats to put inside the crackers
- Christmas music (and snacks!) to entertain as you make!
- More ideas for treats to pop inside
Filling ideas (think something to eat, something to do, something to keep!)
- heart or feather magnets
- magnetic bookmarks
- entertainment note: handwrite jokes, quiz questions, family discussion topic i.e. share a memory of..... etc
- Christmas decoration - shop locally or create something yourself
- packets of seeds
- favourite recipe
- origami instruction & paper
- chocolates
- little soaps, lip balm, suncream
- pens, pencils, stickers
- party hats (try making them yourself!)
Method
1. Roll recycled card into evenly-sized tubes (short end to short end), stick in place with tape.
2. Place cracker snap and tube on the middle of the tissue paper so they extend past each end of the tube, roll
up together & sticky tape the tissue to hold together.
3. Use one piece of curling ribbon to tie one end, catching tissue & ‘snap’ all together
4. Stu the tube with your carefully chosen treats!
5. Tie the opposite end to close as in step 5
6. Roll gift-wrap or decorative paper (also cut to A5 size) around the middle of the cracker to form a beautiful
outer shell. You may choose to use another contrasting paper as a ‘belly band’ and repeat this step.
8. Curl the ribbon
9. Trim / tidy up the ends; handshape to form full, uy ends if they got a bit squashed in the process
10. Final touch - apply a sticker, or name tag on the outside of each cracker to personalise them
Now you know how you can make these every year!
Some things to consider:
Use minimal sticky tape - you want just enough to keep the papers in place, but remember they’re designed to be PULLED and ripped! Lots of tape will stop them from ripping and popping nicely.
Inner tubes aren’t seen - so try to recycle something that would otherwise be discarded. Toilet rolls or paper towel rolls are great for this.
If you want to fill them with heaps of loot, make bigger tubes!
You can hang gifts on the tree which are tagged with a code that relates to clues inside the crackers,
