DIY Friday: Holiday Crackers

Easiest crackers ever!

Get a little crafty this Christmas with our guide to making your own crackers. They're quick, easy and very inexpensive – so you'll have more money left over for presents!

You will need :
• Toilet-roll tubes, or thin postal tubes cut to size
• A4 paper (use old wrapping paper, or ask the kids to draw something and cut it to A4 size, 297mm x 210mm)
• Sticky tape
• Cracker snaps (you’ll find them on Amazon and other online stores)
• Scissors
• Thin card, at least 20cm long
• Decorative string or ribbon
• Small but exciting things to put inside the crackers, such as candy canes, nutmeg graters and cookie cutters
• Cooking tips or jokes

1. Place a toilet-roll tube on the long edge of your paper, in the center, and hold it in place with some sticky tape.
2. Thread a cracker snap through the toilet roll and sticky tape it down to one side of the paper.
3. Roll the tube across the paper, then secure with 3 bits of tape along the seam, in the center and ends.
4. Cut two 20cm x 5cm strips from the thin card. Curl each one into a circle and place one inside each end of the cracker, leaving roughly 2cm sticking out of the end. Hold the card in place with a little sticky tape.
5. At one end of the cracker, form the hand signal for “OK” around the gap between the toilet roll and the card. Gently squeeze and twist a little with your thumb and forefinger, while using your other hand to hold the card in shape. Keep squeezing until the cracker has a nicely defined neck to it.
6. Tie a piece of string or ribbon around the neck of the cracker. Cut off any straggly bits or make a bow.
7. Pop a Christmas hat, a cooking tip or joke and a little surprise in the open end of the cracker . Seal the open end as before. Ta-da! You have just made your own cracker!

To make a Christmas hat, take an A4 piece of paper, cut a jagged line down the middle with your scissors and then stick both ends to each other. Easy!