I've been making homemade holiday crackers (or "bon bons" as we call them in Australia) for at least the last 20 years. How old does that make me sound?! I guess I started them making them as a tween, and it's been my job to keep making them more or less every year since.
Our family has a traditional sit-down lunch on Christmas Day, and these crackers form part of the place setting and table decor. There are some complicated tutorials out there for making holidays crackers at home, but this method is pretty straight-forward. You might need to give your cracker a bit of a yank to rip the tissue, but that's half the fun.
Materials needed: Tiny gifts, cracker snaps, tissue paper, craft rolls, ribbon, sticky tape, scissors, stickers, rhinestones (optional), and adhesive glitter paper (optional).
- Step 1: Decorate your craft rolls with stickers or adhesive paper.
- Step 2: Using a tiny bit of tape, affix the snap to the inside of the cracker so it's centered.
- Step 3: Prepare your tissue paper into sheets around 7" x 15".
- Step 4: Prepare your ribbon into 12" lengths.
- Step 5: Assign the gifts. If your gifts are personalized, you can add a named gift tag to the cracker.
- Step 6: Stuff the cracker, roll in tissue, and tie both ends with ribbon. If you have a buddy to help you with the rolling and tying, you'll get through it in half the time.
- Step 7: Decorate the outside of the cracker with stickers and rhinestones, and add gift tags if you're using them.
Crafter's Notes
- Sometimes instead of using craft rolls, I cut poster rolls down to size. The extra girth allows for more gifts and candy to fit inside :-)
- If you're having trouble rolling the tissue and tying the ribbon on your own, you can use a hot glue gun (or sticker) to fix the tissue in place, and then tie the ribbons.
- I'd prefer to have a little extra tissue paper on the ends and trim them, rather than have them too short.
- If you're hosting Christmas in a hot climate like Bali or Sydney, and you're including chocolates in your crackers, be mindful of storage or they'll melt!
Some of my favorite tiny gifts include (for kids): match box cars, nail polish, holiday candy, scratch and win tickets, key chains, coin purses, (for adults): liquor miniatures, travel sized beauty products, holiday chocolates, and jewelry. Paper hats and cheesy jokes work great for all ages!
