Four Months to Christmas: When Should You Start Making Your Christmas Crackers?
Four months to Christmas might sound like plenty of time – but if you’re planning to make your own Christmas crackers, now is actually a great time to start.
Whether you’re making crackers for your family, a Christmas party or a special Christmas dinner, getting organised early means you can enjoy the fun without the last-minute rush.
Here’s what to think about between now and Christmas.
September – Start Planning Your Crackers
Now is the perfect time to decide what sort of crackers you want to make.
Think about:
- How many crackers you need
- Your colour scheme or Christmas theme
- What size of cracker would you like? Small, standard, large, extra large or our new jumbo sized crackers
- Whether you want traditional crackers with a snap or snapless crackers
- Would you like your crackers to be disposable or keepsake?
- What you would like to put inside
- Whether your crackers need to be suitable for children, pets or guests who don’t enjoy loud bangs
If you’re making your own crackers from a Christmas cracker making kit, ordering early also gives you plenty of time to enjoy the assembly experience.
October – Choose Your Cracker Fillers
October is a good month to start thinking about your Christmas cracker fillers.
You don’t have to fill every cracker with the same thing. Small gifts can be chosen to suit each person, making homemade crackers much more personal than standard shop-bought crackers.
Consider practical little gifts, keepsakes, games or something connected to the recipient’s interests.
And remember to check the size of your crackers before buying your fillers! We make this easy for you to do.
Many of our little gifts also make great stocking stuffers, gifts for a homemade advent calendar or table presents.
November – Get Your Cracker Jokes Sorted
November is the time to tackle the jokes.
After all, what’s a Christmas cracker without a terrible cracker joke?
You could use traditional Christmas cracker jokes, find some family-friendly jokes online, or write your own. If you have children around the table, make sure the jokes are simple enough for them to understand too.
Making your own crackers gives you the opportunity to put a different joke in every cracker – and perhaps even choose jokes specifically for each guest.
My racing snail was getting slow, so I removed its shell.
It’s more sluggish now!
December – Start Making Your Crackers
By December, you should have everything you need.
This is when the fun really starts.
Set aside an afternoon or evening for making Christmas crackers. Get the family involved, choose your music, make a mess and have fun creating something that will become part of your Christmas table.
If you’re making a large number of crackers, don’t leave them all until December. Making a few at a time makes the job much more enjoyable.
Add the cracker fillers, jokes, paper hats and snaps (if you’re using them), then store your finished crackers somewhere dry and safe until Christmas.
And that’s it.
Instead of rushing around in the week before Christmas, you’ll have a set of handmade crackers ready to put on the table – and, more importantly, crackers that you’ve created specifically for the people sitting around it.
If you need some help making or filling your crackers, make sure you check out our advice pages here.
Four months sounds like a long time – but Christmas has a habit of arriving surprisingly quickly!
Start with the design now, sort your fillers and jokes over the next couple of months, and aim to make your crackers during November or December.
Making your own Christmas crackers isn’t just about what’s inside them. It’s about creating something personal, having fun making them and adding another little memory to Christmas Day.
The Cracker Company – creating memories, one cracker at a time.
