Every year it’s the same: the bad jokes, the silly hats that always tear, and the plastic trinket… but not every Christmas cracker is the same, in some houses, people have actual funny jokes, originally decorated crackers, with little gifts inside them that are sure to please. Homemade Christmas crackers are an easy way to save a little extra money, without compromising on quality.

The basic way to make a homemade cracker is quite obvious really; take a cardboard tube, wrap with seasonal paper leaving the ends open and the paper longer than the tube, tie one end with ribbon, insert the cracker contents, then twist or tie the other end.

With the credit crunch draining on our pockets, it’s a relief to know that the majority of the bits and pieces needed to make your homemade crackers are already under your roof. The cardboard tubing inside your toilet rolls, and kitchen rolls makes a perfect start for your crackers, so get saving those tubes now, and be assured that you’re not only saving your cash, you’re doing your part recycling those tubes into crackers in the first place!

You can wrap the cardboard tubes with your usual Christmas wrapping paper, and if your home is anything like mine there will be plenty to choose from. (Tip: save used wrapping paper this Christmas for next year’s crackers.) Of course, colored paper costs mere pennies at your local stationers, and if you are creative you could use this and decorate the finished plain cracker with glitter, stickers, ribbons, or smaller layers of other colors of paper. A variation on this is to use brown paper and decorate with strips of color paper or ribbon, wrapped around the circumference of the tube. It’s a good idea to put a name tag on the crackers as this allows you to personalize the contents of each cracker perfectly to the person it’s intended for.

Once your cracker is wrapped, slide a second cardboard tube into one side of the cracker, leave a space between it and the glued in tube. Tie a small piece of ribbon or string around the cracker where the space is between the two cardboard tubes, this is to stop the contents falling out. Remove the second cardboard tube, and keep it to one side for when you have to close the other side.

There are hundreds of joke sites on the internet, so it’s easy to find suitable material for the jokes inside your crackers. You could either use your computer to print out the jokes you want, and then cut the paper to size, or simply write the joke on a small piece of paper.

In the second part of this two part article, we’ll explore how where to find the rest of the contents for your crackers – including the one bit the child among us all loves, where to find, and how to make your crackers go with a “Bang!”