Christmas crackers or poppers are a English holiday tradition dating back to the 1800's. Placed at each guest's plate at dinner, the favors would be filled with small toys, candies, riddles and a paper crown. Today the tradition has spread across the pond to American holiday dinner tables. You can make your own poppers by recycling some materials from around the house. To make your own Christmas poppers, you will need:
- Cardboard tubes, such as toilet paper rolls, or paper towel or gift wrapping rolls cut into 2”sections.
- Leftover wrapping paper, cut into confetti strips
Tissue paper
- Curling ribbon
- Small toys, found at the local dollar store
- Homemade paper crown
- Small candies.
- Strips of paper on which jokes and riddles are written
- Cracker snaps found at your party store or online at Old English Crackers
Make Your Crackers and Poppers
- Spread out three or four sheets of tissue paper on the table. Place three sections of cardboard rolls,one or two inches apart on the paper.
- Wrap tissue paper around the rolls, creating a tissue paper tube.
- Place snaps down center of tube.
- Fill center section of cardboard with toys, candy, crown, riddles.
- Add confetti.
- Tie a piece of curling ribbon on either side of center section of cardboard.
- Then fill end sections.
- Close by tying ribbon around paper at each end, making sure snap shows through.
- Open by pulling on end sections.
Snaps will crackle and pop, and gifts will shower on your dinner guests.
photo by Debbie Schiel
