I’m trying very hard to cut down on single use plastics. I’ve never been a fan of shop bought Christmas Crackers as they never have anything useful in them and it’s usually made of plastic. I usually buy the ready made fill your own Crackers for Christmas Day which is a good alternative.
However, when I was planning our Village Wine Club Christmas dinner it was working out to be a bit expensive to buy and fill the ready made Crackers so I decided to try and make my own plastic free Christmas Crackers.
They were actually super easy to make so I thought I’d show you how I made them.
And, Once you’ve made your Crackers you can fill them with your choice of plastic free gifts. I’ve now put together a selection of some of my favourite Plastic Free Cracker Fillers
How to make Plastic Free Christmas Crackers
- You’ll need some recycled card, tissue paper (I used recycled), twine, scissors and a bit of sticky tape. And, to go inside the Crackers you’ll need some “snaps” and whatever else you want to pop in. I popped some Christmas hats and reusable wine pourers into the ones I made. it’s also useful to have a ready made tube the same size that you want to make your Crackers that you can use as a template.
2. Use your ready made tube to measure the cardboard and cut out the rectangles to make the inner tube of the Cracker. I used an empty loo roll as my template. Roll the card around the tube and fix with a piece of tape and then slide the tube out. Repeat until you have the required number of cardboard tubes.
3. Pop the snap into the cardboard tube, if you’re using one, and fasten with a piece of sticky tape.
4. Now it’s time to wrap the tissue paper around your cardboard tube to make the Cracker. You’ll need to measure and cut the tissue paper first. It should be the length of the cardboard tube and “snap” and you’ll want to be able to wrap it around the cardboard tube at least once. Place the cardboard tube on the tissue paper and make sure it’s centred. Roll the tube up in the tissue paper and tie one end with twine. This can be a bit fiddly so I used a tiny piece of sticky tape to hold the tissue paper in place while I tied the twine.
5. You can either pop your bits and pieces in before you wrap the tissue paper around the tube or you can drop them in once you’ve tied one end. Sometimes it’s easier to put them in once you’ve tied off one end so they don’t fall out when you’re trying to wrap and tie the tissue paper.
6. Tie off the other end with twine and then you can decorate them if you want to or just leave them plain.
If you need a little help you can find DIY Cracker Kits in the Christmas section of my shop, including ones with pre-cut boards and snaps and hats
For more Zero Waste Christmas inspiration why not take a look at my Zero Waste Christmas Guide and my Zero Waste Christmas Wrapping Blogs.
Have fun decorating your homes for Christmas.
Where do you find “snaps”?
Hi, you can buy them from craft shops like Hobbycraft
Brilliant! We used to make crackers like this when I was a kid! 🙂
Thank you. You’ve inspired me to make some this year and as gifts.
That’s great, I’d love to hear what you decide to make 🙂
Love the stars and plan on adding Ivy.
The stars are one of my favourites, they are wooden tree decorations that I’ve had for ages and I just collect them up after everyone’s pulled their crackers 🙂
Aw! I love this so much!
Thank you, I love Christmas and this is so simple but is an easy way to reduce unnecessary plastic and still make it special 🙂
This is great! I will be making these with my eldest children for this Christmas so thank you. It also got shared on my eco group Saving the Earth one tip at a time 💚🌎
Glad you like it. And, yes it’s fun making them with the kids. We made some Rudolf ones with red pom poms for noses a couple of years ago 🙂
Hi,
Is there a reason you can’t just use the empty loo roll?
Thanks
No, it’s just that I never have enough empty loo rolls 🙂
I was just coming here to ask this as I have a stack of them I’ve been keeping until I found something to use them for, thank you!
And thank you for showing us how easy they are to make 🙂
Glad you found it useful 🙂
Wow! I can’t believe how easy it is to do this. Imagine what a difference this would make across the globe if everyone did it this way!
And you can put exactly what you want in them 🙂
Such a good idea and there will be things inside that people actually want. Lovely!
I’be bought crackers from Dunelm – the plastic-free ones … but had I not found them I’d have made some like yours
We love making our own Christmas crackers. I get my eldest boy to help write out jokes for them.
Great! I really love this post. you are so very creative. and also you provide all the information how to get this thing done. And it’s all recycle. I can make this without costing any money. Thank you!
I know there is a facebook campaign going on right now to stop people have crackers and Christmas due to the plastic. What a great alternative – and they look so much nicer than the shop bought ones full of plastic too.
These are absolutely fab! Love them, and I really want to avoid buying crackers with plastic crap this year so I’m deffo going to try and make my own. I really like the simplicity too.
I love this idea!!! So simple bit so cool and also a bit of fun crafting you can do with older kids in the run up to Christmas – anything that reduces plastic is a win in my books
Laura x
It’s definitely something fun to do with the kids.
Love this idea. I’m planning to make my own with a lottery scratch card in for the adults and a pair of Christmas socks if I can roll them up tight enough! Maybe personalise them so that they can double up as place marker! Thanks for inspiring me.
We personalised ours last year with some wooden letters and used them as place settings. I put XBox Game vouchers in the kids ones and Bamboo socks for the men and some Liberty Hankies and lip balm in the other4s 🙂
Is there a way to make snaps? I’ve never seen them in the craft stores in my area.
Sorry for the delay with my reply but I’m sorry I don’t think there is a way to make your own.