Making my own crackers is one of my favourite Christmas traditions. I’ll show you how to make lovely paper crackers which can be made from sheets of gift wrap, recycled paper, or children’s paintings. I sometimes ask my children to cover some wallpaper lining paper in watercolour drawings and used this to make my crackers. Other years I’ll use sheets of pretty gift-wrap.
I’ll also show you how to turn a napkin into a cracker with treats inside that actually pops (not with a snap, but it still has a satisfying reveal!)
How to make a paper cracker
Materials needed:
Paper, printer paper thickness of thereabouts. This can be recycled paper, kids’ paintings or sheets of gift wrap
- A ruler
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Slim double-sided tape
- Cracker snaps (available from eBay)
- Paper crowns
- Sweets or chocolates
- Small toys
- Small bits of paper with jokes or riddles written on (kids enjoy doing this bit)
Step 1
Cut your paper into rectangles measuring 36 x 18 cm. (These measurements were how I could get the most out of my sheet of gift wrap, you may need to slightly adjust measurements to do the same, although I’d suggest not going smaller than 18cm on the width)
Placing the rectangle in a landscape position in front of you, mark 4 lines on it at the following measurements: 8 cm, then measure another 4 cm, then another 10 cm, another 4cm, then lastly another 8cm, it should look like this
Step 2
Fold the paper along the lines, both ways
Step 3
Inside the 2, 4 cm gaps, fold again in the centre, like this
Step 4
Using scissors, cut triangles into these 2cm folds ensuring the top of the triangle is flat, like this. This is the main cracker mechanism that enables the paper to pull apart.
Step 5
Attach slim double sided tape neatly along one edge of the cracker. Peel it off, then carefully curl the other side of the paper toward it and secure it in place.
Step 6
Insert a paper snap and tape it in place securely
Step 7
Time to stuff the cracker! Ask kids to write a personalised joke or riddle for each guest.
Holding one side of the cracker closed, put your treats inside. Kids will enjoy this part! Insert a paper crown, sweets, present and joke.
For adult crackers, we love these sweet knitted trinkets from Gry & Sif, Bird callers from Quelle Est Belle, socks, and this little knitting tool which is great for gifting a creative! For the kids crackers, we filled ours with good quality pencils, Grapat pieces, small Ostheimer animals and little wool Fairies!
Step 8
Tie ribbon to finish off. You can attach a luggage label at this point if you want to personalise each cracker. In the images I am using strips of an old pink cotton bed sheet, so it needn’t be expensive.
And there you have it! A DIY Paper Christmas Cracker!
