This year I decided it would be fun to make Christmas crackers but I had such a hard time finding snaps so I decided to make my own.
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My sister in law found a tutorial that I followed but it was kind of confusing so I thought I would share what worked for me.
DIY Snaps for Christmas Crackers
To make the snap strips for your Christmas cracker you need just a few supplies.
- Little Party Poppers
- Plastic Straws (1 straw per snap strip)
- Hot Glue (this is the hot glue gun I love)
- Scissors
Making Snap Strips for Christmas Crackers
Putting together the snap strips was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The first one was a little confusing but after that it was easy.
Take apart the Party Popper
The first step for making the Christmas crackers is to take apart the little party poppers.
Remove the paper disc at the bottom and take out the confetti as well as the second paper disc. I also removed the tape holding the string at the top to the neck of the bottle.
You should see the detonator in the neck of the party popper bottle.
From the bottom cut up the side of the bottle and pull it open until you are able to carefully remove the detonator with the string attached from the bottle.
Do this for each of the party poppers and set aside the detonators.
Cut Straws
Prep the straws – these will work as the “strip” that is pulled when you make your Christmas crackers.
First cut off the bendy end of the straw. Then cut along both sides of the straw so you have two long straw halves (kind of like small celery sticks).
You will need two straw halves (one straw) for each snap.
Making the Cracker Snap
Using the hot glue attach the detonator to one end of a straw strip with the string hanging off the end.
I found it to work the best if I put a line of glue on the straw then put the detonator on top of it. Then I covered it in glue so it wouldn’t move.
Once the detonator is secure in the straw take the other straw piece and glue the string coming from the detonator securely to the 2nd straw. Leave a small gap (like 1 cm) so that the straws aren’t stuck together (the snap strip will bend).
Let the glue dry and your snap strips are ready to use in your Christmas Crackers.
If you want to learn more about Christmas in England here are some fun ideas.