SISTERKINS: Homemade Christmas Crackers

Something a Christmas table can't do without is the traditional Christmas Cracker.

Where everyone has to look dorky with their cool hats, tell a stupid joke, and be told, "That is so dumb!" Of course the awesome prize that you brag about cuz you are so sure that yours is the best (and then leave it on the table to be taken out with the trash. Yes the infamous Christmas Cracker....ahhhh.

This year is the year for the cool cracker.....well maybe not so cool, but big. And you know what they say, Bigger Is Better!

Dollar stores are a haven for Christmas Cracker supplies. That's where most of this came from. *Note to family*.....This came from the DIAMOND dollar store, cause I only buy the best for you! NOW LOOK AWAY!

I found the cheapest, cutest hats they had, but forgot to try them on. Maybe I just have a big head???

So I had to do a little alteration on them.

I cut the back open and sewed a piece of elastic in.

This worked pretty good, and fit somewhat bigger.

Red elastic would have been nice but I used what I had in my stash! We call it Big Heads Stash.

I cut up some cardboard that my awesome sister gave me. (NEED SOME MORE CARDBOARD AWESOME SISTER hint hint). This is the same cardboard I used for my scented trees. Click Here if you would like to see the tutorial for these. I made seven of these crackers so I cut seven pieces 6"x12".

I rolled them into a tube, overlapping maybe 1/2 inch. I needed the bodies to be big for all the Diamond awesomeness I was stuffing in there. I hot glued the seam and reinforced with duct tape, but I must confess, I only did two that way. The rest were just hot glued.

It had to be big cuz I wanted to pack them full!

Bigger is Better!

I took the tube and hot glued it to the edge of some wrapping paper.

The snapper part was put inside of it but not glued in.

I cut fourteen more pieces of cardboard. These were for the ends that held the snaps. I put a bit of hot glue on the edge and attached a tube to each end of the snapper. Through trial and error, (that's why you only ever see six in the photos), I realized that they needed to be smaller than the center tubes. I cut these at 3"x7". Rolled them into tubes and hot glued them.

Now you get to roll up your stuff to fit in the tube. Good Luck! Nah, it was pretty easy. I rolled the goodies up inside the hat, and stuffed away.

Roll your paper tightly around the center tube and hot glue it together. The end tubes must be free from the paper so no glue is applied to these. I did glue the ends where you see my fingers, just to hold paper to paper.

Now this is a bit tricky. Kinda scrunch up the paper between the end tube and center tube on each side. I did one at a time so that I wasn't putting tension on the snapper. Once one end is done, you can push it towards the center tube so that the other end has a little more play for you to scrunch it up. I sure hope this isn't the blond leading the blond cause I just can't word this any other way.

We are almost done! You get to put your pretty ribbon on the end and tie. My ribbon had wire in it so it was pretty stable without a knot or a bow.

I must admit, I could have made them a little more glitzy, but this project turned into a four hour ordeal. I quickly put initials on the round stickers. You could put names on but nobody has the same initial in our family. Any sticker will do, maybe an address label, as everybody has them.