Making a Christmas Cracker - Barbara - Superscrimpers

Christmas crackers can be very expensive and poor value. But if you make your own, it's fun, it's very much cheaper, and you can put own gifts inside to suit the person who is going to get it. All you have to do is buy crate paper, which isn't very expensive, and you have to have two contrasting colours. Red and green is good for Christmas. You cut it into sheets of the same size probably about 12 inches by 8 inches. You choose one colour and you fold it three times. And then you cut it out in little patterns like a doyley, you put the two different coloured sheets together, with the cut-out one on the bottom. You then need a card board roll, you could use toilet roll middle, or paper towel middle cut in half. Roll the crate paper around it tightly and quite carefully and when you get to the end you just secure it with a piece of sticky tape. Then you scrunch up one end of the cracker and you wrap something around it, it can be tinsel, or garden twine, or ribbon. You then put into the open end whatever novelties you want to put in and I like to put in a couple of golden coins or a sugar mouse as an extra. Then you scrunch up the other end and tie it round again and there you have your cracker for very little money and far more fun than a commercial one.