Christmas Crackers are a much-loved tradition enjoyed in many parts of the world as an essential component of any good Christmas celebration.Crackers are a lot of fun to make, and you can personalise them with handmade gifts for your recipients. One of the gifts we suggest that will be essential in your homemade cracker is a Relate Bracelet.

With a Relate Bracelet in each of your crackers you will not only have shown your family or loved ones your creativity, but you will have created a loving gift that keeps on giving.“Buying one or many Relate bracelets is a way of giving back to our society by putting your money directly into the causes you care about,” says Lauren Gillis, founder of Relate Bracelets.Each bracelet supports a different cause such a breast cancer education, supporting the elderly, charities that work with children, charities that help eliminate malaria, charities that provide clean water or you can help save the rhino and wild dogs of South Africa.At the same time as doing all this, each Relate Bracelet you buy offers a unique way for you, the consumer, to add your small change to create big changes in the lives of others.The profits from each Relate Bracelet sold are divide into three parts. A third goes to the chosen cause, a third provides earning and upskilling opportunities for the local men and women who make the bracelets as well as being invested into creating enterprise development initiatives, and a third goes towards materials and production costs. So every cent spent on a Relate Bracelet is used to make the world a better place.In the following step-by-step tutorial, you'll learn how to create your own Christmas crackers from scratch.

List of things you will need before you start:

• A cardboard tube about the size of a toilet roll tube, or half of a roller paper towel tube which is actually more economical as for each of these you can make two.
• A square piece of wrapping paper which must be wide enough to cover the tube, leaving at least 10-12.5cm of paper to spare at each end of the tube.
• Along with the special Christmas message, it's nice to add a tiny gift inside the cracker such as a Relate Bracelet, a party hat or Christmas stickers.
• A ribbon

How to make the cracker:

• Wrap the paper around the cardboard roll and tape to ensure that the contents don't fall out.
• Cover the tube with the paper and paste it on with glue.
• Inside the tube place the Relate Bracelet, your special message and whatever else you were giving as a gift.
• Cut lengths of ribbon or tinsel—or both.
• Carefully twist the ends of the paper to give it a cracker shape.
• Tie the ribbon or tinsel around the paper at each end of the tube. Knot them into place and tie in a bow.

How to decorate each cracker:

• Decorate with Christmas stickers if you like.
• Add a small gift tag with the intended person's name on.
• Leave a short length of ribbon tied in a loop if you want to hang up the cracker on the Christmas tree.
• Or place each cracker on the table ready for opening during a Christmas meal. 

You might need to warn people that they won't "crack" like commercial ones because they're homemade.

This article is from Janet Generally Speaking, click here to view the original online.