Christmas just wouldn’t be the same if there were no crackers. First made around 1840, they’ve become part of our festive celebrations in sunny South Africa. These burlap Christmas crackers are so easy to make and you can put your own special Christmas message and personalized gifts inside.

What you Need to Make Burlap Christmas Crackers

What you need

• Toilet paper tubes
• Burlap or hessian to cover the crackers
• Scissors or craft knife
• Tic Tac glue or any other tacky glue used for scrap booking projects
• Wide ribbon to match
• Assorted gifts
• Cracker snaps that make it go pop! If you can’t find snaps you could buy really cheap crackers and remove the snap bits.

Making the Burlap Christmas Crackers

Measure the length and circumference of the toilet roll and cut the following for each cracker:

• A ribbon that’s 2.5 cm longer than the circumference
• A piece of material that’s twice a the length of the roll and 2.5 cm wider than the circumference, cut in half.

I found the 30 cm wide, lace edged  burlap table runner at the China Mall for R 35,00 that was the perfect height so all I had to do was cut it into 6 pieces measuring 30 cm x 18 cm, which I then cut in half. The ribbon was cut into 18 cm strips.  Find the halfway mark in the toilet roll land cut in half leaving a little bit to hold it together.

Measuring and cutting

Put some tacky Tic Tac glue on the cut edges of the toilet roll and carefully line up the cut edges of the burlap runner with the toilet roll. Add the cracker snaps and roll the burlap over the toilet roll. Secure with some more tacky glue. If you don’t have tacky glue a glue gun will work too.

Add the juice and roll her up

To hide the cut or gap, add the ribbon while the tacky glue is still wet and tie down with a piece of string. Gather up the edges of one side of the cracker by gently squeezing and twisting a little with your thumb and forefinger and tie a piece of string tightly around the neck of the cracker. Trim any scraggly bits. Now for the fun bit. Add the gifts,  a personal message, a party hat or whatever else you like.

Filled with goodies

After adding the goodies  tie off the other end of the cracker with another piece of string.

Christmas is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, that’s Christmas.

While the glue is still tacky add the ribbon, tie off one end and fill with gifts

Ta-da!!! Personal, popping, snapping homemade  burlap Christmas crackers!

If you like the idea, please don’t forget to share 😉

Pinny Please

The best thing about these crackers is they can be reused next year. Well that’s if your guests don’t take them home with them 😉 Just replace the cracker snaps and toilet roll and fill with new pressies. For you convenience I’ve added some affiliate links below.  Disclosure: If you click on them, we may receive a commission from Amazon. But don’t worry it won’t come out of your pocket, and it helps us come up with more crafty ideas to share with you 😉

Have you made your own crackers? What would you fill them with?