Jennifer Sheahan: How to make your own Christmas crackers and gingerbread truffles

As the countdown begins in earnest, these are quick and easy ways to make your own fun and sustainable festive treats

Jennifer Sheahan makes her own Christmas crackers, left and centre, and truffles, right.

I often pick up fancy Christmas crackers as a last minute gift if I have been invited to someone’s house around the holidays. It’s a tip that I picked up from my mum and it’s a great one. Crackers are fun, they provide a little entertainment, and they’re something a little different to the standard bottle of wine or box of chocolates (not that there’s anything wrong with those).

This year I decided to try my hand at making my own crackers, and filling them with treats I’d made myself. I wanted to make a more personalised gift, and I liked the idea of making bite-sized after-dinner desserts to go into them. 

Before making your Christmas cracker, measure our your paper.

Plus making your own allows you to use more sustainable materials. It was a fun experiment and one I will definitely do again — the personalised element makes these a fantastic gift and while they took a little effort, they weren’t difficult. Here’s how I made mine.

You will need

You can use any decorative paper you like to make Christmas crackers. 

A roll of pretty wrapping paper is easiest, but you could also use a roll of recyclable brown paper or tissue paper if you want to keep it super low-impact. If you or someone in your family is artistic, you can custom-decorate this paper in advance. 

It’s a gorgeous way to get your kids involved if you’re looking to keep them entertained this week! You will also need either glue (Pritt Stick will do) or double-sided sellotape, and scissors to cut everything to size. 

Roll it all up.

Next you will need empty toilet rolls, or empty kitchen rolls cut in half. If you don’t have these lying around, you can use leftover cardboard (or pick up a sheet of slim cardboard), cut it into strips of around 10cm x 4cm, and roll them into shape. 

Finally, you can add anything you like to add a final flourish — decorative ribbons, dried leaves or berries, little baubles or bells, stickers, and anything you’d like to include inside the cracker (e.g. paper crowns).

The cracker snap

Part of the fun of Christmas crackers lies in the snap, but they’re not essential. You can find cracker snaps online — I bought a set of 12 Ecosnaps Replacement Christmas Cracker Snaps from Faerly for €3. 

If you’re a mad scientist, there are tutorials online that will show you how to jerry-rig a party popper or a leftover banger from Halloween, but I was afraid of singeing my eyebrows off so I did not do that. If you don’t have snaps and don’t have time to order them, just leave them out.

Making the cracker

Take the paper you’ll be using for your crackers and cut out rectangles of around 30cm x 15cm. Place the toilet paper in the centre, and then cut out diamonds in the paper along either side. 

Craker-making: Cut along the fold.

This step is not essential, but it does make it easier to scrunch each end of the cracker together plus it makes it easier to pull the cracker open later. 

Glue the long ends.

Put a strip of double sided sellotape or glue along each long edge of the paper. Finally, roll the toilet roll up in the paper and seal it closed.

Add the fillings

If you’re using a cracker snap, thread it through your rolled cracker and tape it in place. Tie off one end of the cracker with a ribbon or twine. You can put anything you want inside the cracker — write or print jokes, add small gifts or toys, put in wrapped sweets, and add a paper crown if you like. 

Tie off one side and fill it with anything you like, says Jennifer Sheahan.

This is where you really get to personalise your gift, and you can make it as thoughtful or funny as you want to. 

Finally, tie off the other side of the cracker. Decorate the outside however you like — I added a sprig of foliage to mine (that I stole from a nearby holly bush — shhhh). 

The completed, personalised Christmas cracker.

I also wrote my family’s names on the outside for an extra homemade and personalised touch.

The baked goods 

I apparently cannot get enough of homemade things, so I wanted to fill my crackers with desserts I had made myself. I love gingerbread, so I made little gingerbread truffles coated with chocolate and sprinkled with shredded coconut for a wintry look. I wrapped these in parchment before popping them inside the crackers. 

You could use any gingerbread or any cake at all, even store-bought — just mash it up and roll it into small balls, refrigerate for 20 minutes, then dip in melted chocolate and sprinkle whatever you like on top. I used dark chocolate, but white chocolate would also taste great with the ginger.

Jennifer Sheahan's gingerbread truffles.

My favourite gingerbread recipe is: 115g of butter beaten with 100g brown sugar to a light colour; then mix in 235g treacle or molasses, 1 egg, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract; sift in 310g of plain flour and 1.5 teaspoons of baking soda; next add in your flavours — I like one teaspoon each of ground cinnamon and ginger, half a teaspoon each of ground cloves and allspice, and three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt; then finally slowly and carefully stir in 235ml of freshly boiled water. 

Pour everything into a lined 20cm x 20cm tin and bake at 170c (fan) for around 40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. 

If you’re eating it as-is, it serves perfectly with cream cheese frosting (100g butter mixed with 100g cream cheese, 200g icing sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt).