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holiday crackers |
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Another great gift idea from notmartha.org, these are fun to make and open. Some notes after testing: I think I used too much paper, so you may want to roll in half as much paper (you can still double the colors). Also, I think I may have filled it with too much candy. Some people may think this is blasphemy, but if the cracker is too full, then the little firecracker part won't crack properly. |
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The key to it all is the cracker that goes inside. I ordered mine from Olde English Crackers in Bellingham, WA. I ordered on Saturday and they were on my doorstep Monday morning! |
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You can conceivably get your own tube by using the cardboard roll from paper towels or the cardboard roll from toilet paper. I didn't have 40 of those on hand, so I went ahead and ordered these tubes from the same place as the crackers. They are actually wider than TP rolls, and much sturdier (less chance of getting crushed in transit). |
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I have seen crackers in catalogs and in stores made with nice wrapping paper for the holidays. I tend to avoid red and green together, it gives me a headache. I got this great assortment of 100 sheets (20 colors) of tissue paper from Michael's which included shiny gold and silver. |
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Traditional crackers contain a joke, a paper crown, and a prize. My crackers contained a lot of candy... |
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and toys... |
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and homemade confetti... |
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and for the adults, some liquor-filled chocolate bottles. |
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The sheets were twice as big as I needed, so I folded them in half, with one side an inch shorter than the other and cut them on the fold. |
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I would set a smaller sheet of one color on the table, then lay a wider sheet of another color on top of that. The roll went in the middle and the cracker went inside the roll (centered). I taped the edge of the two sheets to the tube and began rolling the tissue paper around it. |
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At the end of rolling, I folded the outside of the paper for a clean edge like so and taped the paper onto the roll. |
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I scrunched one end of the tube and tied it off with some twine. |
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Here's what it looks like empty. Now we need to fill it. |
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An example of how much one cracker could hold. |
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Once the crackers are filled (I tried not to fill beyond the tube), I squashed the other end shut and tied it off with more twine. |
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A stack of crackers waiting to be filled to give out at my office. |
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And a bunch of crackers for my nephew's Christmas package - one for each day from Dec. 24 to Jan 1. |
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back to make |
