Jingle Bell Christmas Crackers

Our Day 14 activity in our Christmas Count Down was to make some homemade crackers for the table. Technically though you couldn't really call these crackers because we left out the bit that goes 'bang' in exchange for something a little more Christmassy! Bubble is quite sound sensitive and last year was not a big fan of the Christmas cracker pulling thing, so instead of a snap strip (which can be bought in packs from craft stores if you'd like to include them in yours) we used bells tied to each end - still noisy, but a quieter kind of noisy :-)

WE USED:

* crepe paper (red)
* coloured contact (red)
* toilet rolls
* small toys/favours
* old Christmas card
* scissors
* string/wool/twine/thin ribbon
* small bells
* decoration for exterior (small red wooden stars)
* glue
* marker/texta

For great step by step instructions on how to make 'proper' Christmas crackers using a snap strip check out this link on All Things Kids (written by Kelly Burstow from Be A Fun Mum).

To start with we cut our crepe paper and contact to size. The crepe paper we cut long enough to wrap around the toilet roll twice, and about 5cm wider than the toilet roll (wide enough to tie off the ends). The contact was cut long enough to go around the roll once and the same width as the toilet roll tube.

Bubble chose her favourite Christmas card from last year and we cut the front from it. We drew a floor map of our house on the reverse side and I secretly put a big 'X' in a special place where treasure will be hidden on Christmas Day.

Then we turned it into a puzzle by cutting it up. The idea is that there will be a piece in each cracker and the map can be put together once they've all been pulled.

Inside each cracker we put a small toy, a paper hat and a puzzle piece. The puzzle piece had to be rolled a little to fit in the tube.

Once your prizes are inside roll the tube up in the crepe paper (we chose crepe paper because of the elastic type give in the paper) and use a strip of the precut contact around the centre to secure it in place. You can also use tape.

Using string or similar (we used wool) tie off each end securely. We then prettied up our crackers a little by using a hot glue gun to attach some wooden stars.

Thread and tie bells to each end of the crackers, we put two at each end so they would make lots of noise when pulled.

They ended up quite cute, I love the look of them stacked up on the table ready for Christmas lunch.