Decorating Christmas Crackers or Bon Bons

How's your Christmas planning going?  Started yet?  I've only bought a couple of presents, but I've made the Christmas crackers.

Every year I make Christmas Bon Bons or Crackers.  I don't know why?  I must be crackers.  I think it's because I don't like the tacky gifts they put inside the store-bought ones or the cost of the 'luxury' crackers.  This year I cheated a little and bought a kit, which made it so much easier.  This silver kit is $3 at Spotlight and includes 6 pre-cut crackers, snaps, ribbon ties, party hat and bad jokes.

Here's how to make them.  I didn't want plain silver, so I decided to decorate my crackers with a simple white doily.  Just glue it on (it's a bit messy).  Turn the cracker over and tape down the snap towards the back of the cracker.

Then I added an embellishment.  These silver snowflakes were $2 for 6 from Overflow.  There are so many pretty decorations available, just choose something flat that can be attached easily.

I attached the snowflake to the cracker with a hot glue gun, then folded the cracker into shape.  Use a gentle up/down motion to get the tabs into the slot.

Now tie a piece of ribbon or string around the bottom of the cracker.  I decided to use the silver ties that came with the packet (both packets were one tie short Spotlight!!!) as I wanted the doily to be the feature.  Previously I've used pretty ribbon so it becomes the feature.  Now you can fill the cracker.

I used the hats and jokes that came in the packet and added some Christmas Lindt chocolates.  These are the same chocolates I used for my Lindt Chocolate Christmas Tree last year.  Other gifts I've used before include; lipsticks, key rings, beaded bracelets, earrings, scratchy tickets, lollipops ....  You can use pretty much anything that will fit inside the cracker.  You can also type up your own jokes or write inspirational messages to put inside.  Once the cracker is filled, tie-off the other end and it's finished.

Sparkly Snowflakes (leave glitter everywhere)

I'm not hosting Christmas at my place this year, but if I was I'd decorate the table with these pretty silver reindeer - $4 each from KMart

and I'd bring in some roses from the garden, and pop them in little silver votives.

I'd use the new silver charger plates I picked up from KMart for $2 each, and hopefully my table would look like this.

If any of you have any suggestions for what gifts you can put into a Christmas Cracker, please share it with us in the comments section below.

To see more Christmas decorating, please visit my new blog DIY Decorator