You can easily make a home version of the popular United Kingdom Christmas Crackers with this step by step tutorial. Great for table favors, decor, and party fun, these Christmas Crackers will delight children and adults at your holiday dinner or party.

How to Make Christmas Crackers

Crackers are typically pulled at the Christmas dinner table or at parties. These are big in the UK. Commercially made Christmas Crackers are pulled apart by two people, and have a gift of some sort in one of the chambers. When the opening happens, only one person receives the gift. Commercially made crackers will split with a mild bang. No bang for homemade versions, but plenty of treats inside including small toys and candy (your choice). These popular Christmas crackers have been around for over 150 years, and are simple to make at home. Add them to your holiday table (or just the kid’s table) this Christmas!

This craft is super simple to make. It is a great one to assign to children to help get the Christmas table decorations ready. If your children are old enough to use scissors and Elmer’s glue (or tape!), you may want to consider making this easy Christmas Cracker craft with them this holiday season!

Notes:

• This is a 15 minute craft. It took under 15 minutes to make the four Christmas Crackers we needed for our holiday children’s table.
• Use grid lined wrapping paper if possible. It makes things much easier!

How to Make Christmas Crackers Materials

• Wrapping Paper
• Empty Toilet Paper Tube
• Elmer’s Glue and/or Clear Tape
• Scissors
• Ribbon
• Candy or Small Toy(s)
• Red Construction Paper
• Black Construction Paper
• Glitter
• Printable Christmas Cracker Stocking

How to Make Christmas Crackers Directions

• Try and grid wrapping paper for this craft. Straight lines that are easy to follow. The length and width is: 10 grids long by 8 grids wide over a toilet paper tube.
• Cut wrapping paper.
• Line wrapping paper up with the toilet paper tube leaving 3 grids of wrapping paper over the edges of the roll on each side.

• Glue (or tape) one end to the toilet paper tube.

• Fold over width edge, so it is a clean line.

• Roll the wrapping paper over the tube.

• Glue to paper overlap.

• Scrunch one end. Tie with a ribbon.

• Load in candy or toy(s).
• Tie the open end with a ribbon.

• You can leave the Christmas Crackers just like this as they are finished. However, if you wish to hide the seam:

• Cut out a stocking on red construction paper using this pattern.
• Cut a small strip of black construction paper for the top of the stocking, glue in place.

• Write out holiday saying in glue.

• Sprinkle glitter on top of the glue, tap to remove excess.

• Glue over the seam on Christmas Cracker.

---

• Disclosure: the links in this post may be affiliate links.

• For more Holiday posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

• For more Craft posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

• If you enjoyed this post, be sure to sign up for the Ann’s Entitled Life weekly newsletter, and never miss another article!

---

---

FOLLOW US ON:

This easy to make Elf Mason jar lid ornament is simply adorable. This step by step tutorial has easy to follow directions so you can make one for your tree, to give as a gift, or to place on top of a present as a little something extra. What I do for gifts is to wrap them, add the ribbon, and then tape down the handmade ornament below where my bow is going on the gift.

Elf Mason Jar Lid Ornament DIY

I love making Christmas Tree ornaments! If you are looking for more DIY Christmas ornaments (some crafty, some upcycling existing ornaments), you may want to make these:

• How to Make Your Own Rudolph Ornament – upcycle, and so cute!
• oy Decoupage Christmas Ornament – upcycle, more traditional.
• Paw Print Ornaments – perfect for preserving furring little paws.
• DIY Cork Snowflake Ornament – got wine corks!?
• Essy DIY Button Snowflake Ornament – so simple to make!

Elf Mason Jar Lid Ornament Materials

• Mason Jar Lid Ring
• Felt: Green, White and Flesh Colored (blush, brown, black… up to you)
• Christmas (holiday) Twine
• Small Googly Eyes
• Puffy Paint Red and Pink
• Scissors
• Glue Gun
• Hot Glue Sticks
• Yarn Needle
• Pencil

Elf Mason Jar Lid Ornament Directions

• Tie a piece of 8″ twine onto the Mason Jar Lid Ring. Tie the ends into a knot and glue the knot right onto the backside of the lid ring.

• Trace the outside of your lid ring onto a piece of flesh-colored felt, cut out with scissors and carefully glue into the back side of your lid ring.

• Measure the top of your lid ring about ¼ of the way down and cut two pieces of a hat out of green felt by making the bottom with ½” inch wider than your measurement to give room for the sides.
• Place your two hats together and sew the sides together using your yarn needle, twine, and a basic blanket stitch. Bring the needle out directly below again, just below the edge of the fabric. Loop the thread around the needle where it emerges and pull the thread taut. You can read more here. (If you like, you can add a tad of fiberfill to the hat to make it puff-out just a bit.)

• Cut out a white zig zag piece from the white felt to make a hat-band with a flat bottom.

• Glue the hat-band to the bottom of your hat, and on each side.

• Cut a small sliver into the back middle of the hat, slide the hat onto the top of the Mason jar and slide the loop through the back sliver cut and secure the hat with glue.

• Cut out two tiny flesh colored ears and glue them to the sides of the lid below the hat.
• Now glue two googly eyes below the hat onto the flesh colored circle.

• Paint a red smile with you puffy paint.
• Paint two pink dots for cheeks with your pink puffy paint.

• Let your ornament dry overnight and hang by the Christmas Twine loop.

---

• Disclosure: the links in this post may be affiliate links.

• For more Holiday posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

• For more Craft posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

• If you enjoyed this post, be sure to sign up for the Ann’s Entitled Life weekly newsletter, and never miss another article!

---

---

FOLLOW US ON:

Follow the step by step instructions in this Bottle Cap Christmas Tree DIY Tutorial to make a lighted bottle cap Christmas tree. Use your pop caps or beer caps to make this unique, and beautiful, holiday craft!

Bottle Cap Christmas Tree DIY Tutorial

Notes:

This is, hands down, my favorite craft made for this holiday season. My niece (and I) have made some goodies, but this one… just blows me away in person. And, I am not ashamed to say it, I had nothing to do with it except I bought the paper mache triangles for a craft a few years ago, and left them in a craft box when I did not move forward with my idea. My niece had wanted to make a tree with all the beer bottle caps she has (courtesy of my uncle who drinks beer near and far – some of those caps are from Asia, Europe, and South America as well as from the good old USA and Canada!), but she could not figure out how to make it happen with a round-cone. As soon as she saw my triangle cones while rummaging though that old craft box, she knew her idea was doable!

• This is not an easy craft to make. The bending was daunting to me. Her hands are nowhere near as large as mine, but she was able to give each bottle cap that needed bending a push against the soft side of her palm and bend those caps every time. She did suggest that people may want to wear a gardening glove on the hand holding the bottle cap to aid in traction and to prevent cuts. As she put it “this is a commitment.” And, she is giving them away as gifts!

• Domestic beer caps are MUCH easier to work with than craft beer caps. (They bend easier.)

• Use a low-temp glue gun so as not to burn yourself.

• Theme your bottle caps, or choose randomly. Either will look lovely.

• Set aside colorful caps that will stand-out for the ornaments.

• While the instructions are short, this is a time-consuming craft. Shingling is easier than fitting the caps around a bend, but it does take more than a few hours to make one of these trees.

Bottle Cap Christmas Tree DIY Tutorial Materials

• Paper Mache Triangle Cone (the size used in this craft is 5x5x14)
• Slip Joint Pliers
• Bottle Caps (and lots of them)
• Battery Operated Lights (a 20 count was used here)
• Low-Temp Glue Gun
• Hot Glue Sticks

Bottle Cap Christmas Tree DIY Tutorial Directions

• Start at the top of your triangle, and work down.
• Do not worry about any “holes”. They will be covered with “ornaments.”
• If you have all white or all green bottle caps, you may want to paint the triangle first. In other words, if you are going for a monochrome look, paint the base.
• Flatten the beer cap ends. You are hot gluing the flat part of the triangle.

• To go around the edges of the triangle: bend with your hand. You may want to hold up the bottle cap to the triangle and see where exactly you have to bend the cap to make it fit around the side.

• The top part of this craft is the most imperfect. If you have gold or brown bottle caps, use those at the top. It will help mitigate the imperfections.
• You need to fit every piece to start. As you get to the bottom and the triangle broadens, this gets easier.

• Shingle at the broad parts of the tree by (again) flattening the cap, and then hot gluing with slight overlapping.

• Hot glue the ornaments over the holes. Some of our “ornaments” were flattened, some were not. It added a bit of depth to not flatten them, but they were more difficult to hot glue in place.

• Turn on your battery operated lights and make sure they work.
• Glue the end of the light string, and place it at the top of the tree.

• Hot glue the lights in place down the tree. Make sure they are staggered – you may have to bend the wire cord to achieve the look you want.

• Tuck the bottom of the switch underneath the tree.

• This is what the trees look like lit.

• This is what the trees look like unlit.

• This truly is a unique and lovely (which may seem odd since it was done with beer caps) tree craft. If you have the time, and the bottle cap collection, give it a try. The finished product will amaze you.

---

• Disclosure: the links in this post may be affiliate links.

• For more Holiday posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

• For more Craft posts on Ann’s Entitled Life, click here.

• If you enjoyed this post, be sure to sign up for the Ann’s Entitled Life weekly newsletter, and never miss another article!

---

---

FOLLOW US ON: