Christmas Cracker Maker
A cracker for each guest with their name on it, our own jokes to go inside, and a paper crown.
Your crackers
One cracker and one crown per name (up to 40). The names are only drawn on this page; they are not sent or saved anywhere.
The joke slips and the crown take the same colours. “Colour it in” prints black outlines on white, for children to colour before you roll it.
The paper is cut to wrap the tube exactly once (π × the diameter) plus a 12 mm strip to glue. Most UK and US toilet-roll tubes are 42 to 46 mm across; a kitchen-roll tube is about 23 cm long, so cut it in half.
138 family jokes, shuffled; every slip is short enough to roll up inside your tube.
Cracker snaps are not included. The bang comes from a snap, a thin card strip with a dab of friction powder, which you buy separately from a craft shop. Without one the cracker still pulls apart; someone just has to shout “bang”.
How to make a Christmas cracker
- Print the cracker PDF at 100% (“Actual size”, not “Fit to page”) on ordinary 80 to 100 g/m² paper. Thin paper gathers neatly at the necks; card (160 g/m² and up) is too stiff to tie and tears instead.
- Cut round the outline (the corner marks show where it ends) and cut out the diamonds at both necks with a craft knife or small scissors. They take paper out of the neck, so it bunches up evenly instead of crumpling.
- Fill the tube. Lay the tube between the two dashed lines, then push the snap through it so its ends stick out past both dot-dash tie lines. Put in a rolled-up joke slip, the crown folded small, and a little gift: a sweet, a tiny puzzle, a hair clip, a note.
- Roll and glue. Roll the paper round the tube, design side out, and glue (or use double-sided tape on) the strip marked GLUE HERE under the other edge. The name label lands on the side opposite the seam.
- Tie each neck at its dot-dash line with ribbon, baker’s twine or curling ribbon. Squeeze the paper gently with your fingers first, then tie snugly but not tight: the snap has to slide out when two people pull.
The net is up to 273 mm long on A4 (255 mm on US Letter). Craft snaps are usually 20 to 30 cm long. The snap should reach past both ties but not past the ends of the paper, so trim a long one at its ends with scissors, never at the powdered middle.
Questions
Is there a free Christmas cracker template I can print on A4 as a PDF?
Yes, this one: type the names, pick a design and press Download PDF. You get one cracker per A4 or US Letter page (the page picks Letter for US and Canadian browsers), with cut marks, the tube’s position, tie lines and the neck diamonds, inside a 12 mm margin that home printers do not clip. It is free, with no sign-up and no watermark.
Can I cut it on a Cricut or another cutting machine (SVG)?
Yes. The SVG button saves the net as a cut file at true size in millimetres, with the outline and diamonds on a red cut layer, the tie lines, tube ends and glue line on a blue dashed score layer, and the printed design as a picture underneath. It fits a 12 × 12 in mat. Cricut’s Print Then Cut area is smaller than the whole net (about 17 × 23.5 cm on most setups), so either print the PDF and cut by hand, or hide the picture layer and cut patterned paper with the cut layer only.
Where can I get printable cracker jokes, and are there jokes for adults?
Press Joke slips. The 138 family jokes were written for this page in the proper cracker tradition (“Why do paper hats never win arguments? They always fold.”), and no joke appears twice. Tick Add the grown-ups set for 30 more about in-laws, the office party and the January bank statement: cheeky, never crude, so they are fine with teenagers at the table. Each slip is narrower than your tube is long (88 mm for a toilet-roll tube), so it rolls up and drops in. Print one per cracker, a full sheet of 12, or all of them for a bowl in the middle of the table.
How do I make a Christmas cracker hat or paper crown for kids?
Press Crowns. Each crown is a zig-zag band with the guest’s name on the front and a 15 mm glue tab, sized from the head: Child is 52 cm (most children from about four to ten measure 50 to 54 cm round the forehead), Adult is 58 cm, or measure with a tape and type it in. An adult crown is longer than any home paper, so it prints as strips you glue end to end on their small GLUE tabs; the crown still comes out exactly the size you chose. Tissue paper is the traditional crown, but ordinary printer paper survives a whole dinner better, and the colour-in design makes a good job for children while the turkey cooks.
Do you sell cracker snaps or kits?
No. This page sells nothing and links to no shop. Snaps are sold separately in craft shops and online, usually in packs of 50 or 100. They contain a tiny amount of silver fulminate, so keep them away from small children until the cracker is made.
Is anything I type sent anywhere?
No. The names, the PDF, the PNG and the SVG are all made in your browser. The designs are our own drawings, and the jokes were written for this page.