I’m really starting to get in the Christmas mood now. Last weekend we went and chose our Christmas trees although we haven’t put them up yet. And, last night we had our village wine club Christmas dinner.
I’m trying very hard to cut down on single use plastics this year. 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.
As I mentioned it was our village Christmas Wine Club dinner last night and we wanted to have some plastic free Christmas Crackers to go on the table. However, with 42 people attending 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.
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.
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.
