How to make your own plastic free Christmas Crackers……

You’ll need some recycled card, tissue paper, twine, scissors and a bit of sticky tape.  And, something to go inside the Crackers. 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.

Use your ready-made tube to measure the cardboard and cut out the rectangles to make the inner tube of the Cracker.  Use an empty loo roll as my template. Roll the card around the tube and fix with a piece of plastic free tape and then slide the tube out.  Repeat until you have the required number of cardboard tubes.

Pop the snap into the cardboard tube, if you’re using one, and fasten with a piece of tape.

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 use a tiny piece of plastic free tape to hold the tissue paper in place while you tied the twine.

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.

Tie off the other end with twine and then you can decorate them if you want to or just leave them plain.