Christmas Crackers (no, not the food!)

Photo from Wikipedia

Have you ever seen a Christmas cracker before? They're primarily used in the UK on Christmas Day but my family has adopted the tradition and they're a great addition to any party or dinner. It's a cardboard tube with a toy, a tissue hat, and a joke inside, wrapped in paper and when two people pull on either end of the tube, it makes a "pop" noise. They're quite expensive at the store, though. A 6-pack can cost between $15-$35, depending on the toy. I decided to make my own from much less and you should too!

Here's what you'll need:

* Toilet paper or paper towel rolls
* Cracker snaps
* A joke
* A toy
* A tissue paper hat
* A hot glue gun
* Wrapping paper
* Card stock paper
* Tape
* Scissors
* Ribbon

First, you'll want to make a tissue paper hat. It's quite simple, really. Take a big sheet of tissue paper and cut it so it's roughly 3.5" x 24" (I just used the length of the tissue paper, I think it was roughly 27").

Tape the two ends together with tape.

Then fold it in half, then in half again, then in half again. Then take your scissors and cut one of the ends at an angle.

Unfold your hat and ta-da! A tissue paper hat -

Now that you've got your hat, you're ready to make your crackers! Take your wrapping paper and cut a 7.5"x12" square. Your toilet paper rolls (or paper towel rolls) should be roughly 2" x 4" (three should be able to go across the square).

Take your cracker snap and hot glue it a couple inches from the top of the wrapping paper.

Take your toilet paper roll and stuff it with a toy, a joke, and your tissue paper hat. Make sure they're in there tight enough so nothing can fall out of either end.

Next, take your roll and using two other rolls as guides, make sure your main roll is exactly in the center of the wrapping paper, above the cracker snap.

Glue the top of the wrapping paper to the center roll.

Remove the two side rolls and roll the toilet paper roll down, covering it with the wrapping paper and hot gluing it at the bottom.

Once your toilet paper roll is covered, take your card stock paper and cut 2.25"x 7" rectangles, as they'll be acting as your stiffener ends. Roll up the paper and stick it one end. Hot glue it to the wrapping paper and do the same thing on the other side.

Take one end and slightly twist it. The crease is where you'll be tying your ribbons.

Do that on the other end, tie on your ribbons, and voila! Your Christmas crackers are complete!

TOTAL COSTS: Approximately $20 to make as many as I wanted!
$3.99 for wrapping paper from Vons
$2.99 for tissue paper from Vons
$1.99 for ribbon from Vons
$7.50 for 25 cracker snaps from Olde English Crackers
Toys ranged in price from Michael's
Card stock, tape, scissors, hot glue gun, toilet paper rolls, and jokes all on hand

TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Approximately 15 minutes/cracker
This included the time it took to make the tissue paper hat, cut out the card stock stiffer ends, etc.

EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 2 out of 5
It's not difficult, it's just a bit time consuming, depending on how many you make but in the end, they'll be a lot of fun to pop open on Christmas Day!

My First Blog Requests - Keep 'Em Comin'!

If there is ever something you're curious how long it took to do or how much it might be, shoot them on over and I'll break it down for you Mythbuster-style! Today's spoooooky recommendations came from my former neighbor, Mrs. Martin -

#1 - Glow in the dark eyes

Perhaps you've seen the pictures going around Pinterest or Facebook. Glow lights + paper towel/toilet paper rolls = creepy eyes in the bushes. Does it work?

Well, yes and no. A few things to keep in mind:


     a.) You need to cut the eyes fairly large so you can see the light but not so big that you can see the glow stick
   b.) Depending on how long the glow sticks are, you might have to curl them inside the rolls. For these that were 8" long, I had to fold them so they were 4" long so that the stick wouldn't go outside of the roll. If you hide them in bushes, perhaps the bushes can hide the sticks if they go outside of the rolls, but it might be better to get 4" glow sticks.
     c.) Certain colors work better than others. As you see below, the green shows up the best, then pink, then blue
     d.) Remember to draw your design before cutting. Having a template for the eyes will make it so much easier!

TOTAL COSTS: $3.50 (glow sticks from Vons)
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 15 minutes (to make 3)
EASY-PEASY SCALE: 1 out of 5. A great activity for kids, super easy, and an excuse to be creative!


#2 - "Spooky Teeth"
Here's another that has been making the rounds on Facebook and Pinterest but was also on Cosmopolitan's website. Pretty straight forward - apples, marshmallows, peanut butter. Are they any good?

Yes. Yes yes yes. I don't know why I've never seen marshmallows and peanut butter together but man is it addicting. A recipe I saw called for "1 medium apple, 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter, 25 mini marshmallows" but I did 2 small apples and chunky peanut butter and they tasted ah-may-zing. If you want to make them more like teeth, you can clean them up a bit but I promise you, they won't be on the plate long enough for anyone to care. Great Halloween snack!

TOTAL COSTS: About $9
$2.00 for mini marshmallows, $3.00 for peanut butter, and $4 for 3 lbs. of apples
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: About 15 minutes
...though some of that time may have been spent eating ingredients...ahem...
EASY-PEASY SCALE: 1 out of 5
If you don't already have an apple slicer/corer like this, I highly recommend you get one. Saves you a lot of time and energy!