One of my traditions!

It still looks like this outside

so I decided to stop grouching and make lemonade out of the bowl of lemons winter served.

I developed a few (quite a few) Christmas traditions over the years and I’d like to
share this one with you.

Since a friend taught me in 1981 I’ve been making Christmas Crackers every single year. You’re lucky, I don’t have photos of them all…..

Here’s how I go about this lovely little tradition:

Gather together the follow supplies - one for each guest at your Christmas dinner table:

Toilet paper rolls - start saving them early if you need lots
Colored crepe paper or gift wrap foil - to match your decor or traditional red/green - sometimes I use a double layer of red and green together.
Snappers - buy at a craft store
Lottery scratch tickets
Party hat - buy at craft store
Chocolates - I always use Ferrer Rocher but liquer filled ones for adults are fun
Chinese cookie fortunes - you can make up your own - personalized or general good luck
Tape (I use masking tape or invisible cello)
Curly ribbon
Small gift item for inside cracker(optional*)
Gift tag if you are putting special gifts inside so you know which one goes at which place setting
Small decorative item for outside cracker (optional)

* Some of the gift ideas I’ve used over the years are: sample’s of perfume and cologne, shock pens (heeeheeeheee), key chains, lip gloss, ornaments, anything small enough to fit - I used to spend hours combing the stores looking for suitable items - and this year - NOT a single gift item - too many times they’ve been left lying on the table - forgotten by the guests - so - a scratch ticket and a chocolate are wonderful treasures to find inside the cracker.

Directions

Cut foil about 10 inches wide by 14 inches long
Cut two lengths, or more if you wish, of curly ribbon 14 inches long, for each cracker

Place scratch ticket, hat, chocolate, fortune, snapper and gift in each toilet paper roll. I lay everything out in piles for each cracker ahead of time, otherwise I tend to forget if each cracker has everything inside

Place a roll at one end of the foil, centering it horizontally with equal lengths of foil on each end

Roll the toilet paper roll in foil

Tape securely and invisibly if possible

This part is easier if you have someone helping to hold it all together. Scrunch one end of foil near the end of the roll and tie with curly ribbon - I always use a butchers knot (go around twice instead of just once), pull the ribbon tight without ripping the foil

Tie the other end

Use dull scissors to curl the ends of the ribbon

Fluff out the foil so it’s neat and tidy and fairly even

Cut the ends of the foil to look like a grass skirt - being careful not to cut the snapper

Place seam side down and decorate top of cracker with anything you choose - as simple as nothing (let the foil speak for itself) or as special as a tiny shiny reindeer, a plastic poinsettia flower, a sprig of plastic greenery or as opulent as a lapel brooch

Attach a name tag if desired (the crackers do double duty as place cards)

Make your crackers early in December and place on a tray to display on your dining table as a centerpiece

I place one at each place setting on your table - on the plate, beside the cutlery or near the top of the plate.

Before passing the food, I ask each guest to hold his/her cracker by the snapper end in their left hand and hold it out toward the guest on his/her right, crossing their right arm under their left and holding the snapper of the other persons cracker.

This makes for a lot of laughter, discussion and prompting, so it’s a real ice breaker - but who needs an ice breaker at Christmas dinner? I’ve been doing this for over 25 years and still my family seems to need direction every year!

Count out loud to three and everyone pulls on the snappers - not hard enough to yank it out of the other persons hand, but hard enough to make the snapper “SNAP” - it’s like a “cap gun” if you remember how those worked.

I ask each guest to wear the tissue paper hat - at least for the photo, then I don’t care, but usually everyone keeps it on during dinner and sometimes all evening. It’s very festive.

As we start passing the food, each guest reads their fortune out loud, scratches their ticket and perhaps even eats the chocolate. I ask everyone to just drop the bits of paper and ribbon - and toilet paper rolls under the table - or in a bag if I’ve remembered.

You can go thru the bag later and rescue the important stuff if you want - I save the decorations if they aren’t damaged and use them again 10 years later

Tada…here’s the finished cracker. It’s a very special treat for very special guests! Kids absolutely love them for birthday parties and you can match them to any theme. I made pink and white crepe paper crackers for my daughters 12th birthday party - she helped me - the table looked so pretty and the girls loved them.

Pop helped me today to make the crackers by holding the foil for me to cut and watching carefully so I put everything in. We talked about the lottery tickets and that one of them might be a $5,000.00 or $10,000.00 winner - woohoooooo - and he said he’d share with me if he won!

AND in our household, there’s a huge possibility with scratch tickets - I WON $10,000.00 in 1986 and I bought a ticket for son Sean’s Christnmas stocking in 1990 - and he WON $5,000.00. Everyone remembers those times - and always hopes for the big one!

This is my planned place setting this year! Your invitation is in the mail.