A review of Rubena Grigg's holiday decorating and entertaining masterpiece, Decorating Tricks for Christmas, will give simple instructions on making Christmas crackers
The major bookstore chains always herald the holidays with a new onslaught of books, manuals, and retrospectives that are designed to help the reader recapture the holiday feeling of bygone years. Depending on the store, the reader will find Martha Stewart’s Christmas, Christmas with Southern Living, and The Spirit of Christmas as the most current and therefore the “best” resource.
However, this writer’s personal favorite Christmas craft book is Decorating Tricks for Christmas. This publication, written by Rubena Grigg, offered from the Octopus Publishing Group Ltd. in Great Britain and originally distributed in 2000, includes arts and crafts that will help the reader establish a holiday atmosphere in several different themes.
One particularly interesting section explores the holiday theme of Evening Escapades. This portion features a craft that is effective, clever and relatively simple to recreate. When created in multiples and displayed en masse on a holiday tablescape, the effect of the presentation is just shy of spectacular. You can create your own display by following Grigg’s simple instructions for Christmas Crackers.
Supplies
- Two 4 x 7 inch rectangles of silver crepe paper
- One 7 x 14 inch rectangle of white crepe paper
- Hot glue gun or glue stick
- One 6.5 x 13.75 inch rectangle of waxed paper
- Cardboard tubes from paper towel rolls
- Craft knife
- Cracker snap
- String
- Silver curling ribbon
- Cracker gift and motto
- Natural decorations (such as tiny pine cones, leaves, and flowers) spray painted silver
Instructions
- Use pinking shears to cut a decorative zigzag edge along one long side of each silver rectangle
- Run a line of glue along each short side of the white crepe paper rectangle, about 2 inches from the edge. Lay the silver rectangles on top so the pinked edges cover the glue, and press down to stick it to the white crepe paper. Lift the remaining sides of the silver paper and place a dab of glue underneath; press firmly.
- Turn the crepe paper set over so the inside of the cracker paper is facing up. Apply two lines of glue to the waxed paper --- parallel with the short ends of the rectangle and with each line about 4 inches in from the end. Center the waxed paper on top of the crepe paper; press down to stick the two sheets together.
- For the middle of the cracker, cut a cardboard tube 4.75 inches long, using a craft knife. Position this tube along one long edge of the crepe paper set, centering it to leave equal amounts of silver and white paper at either end. Insert the cracker snap through the tube and place an uncut paper towel tube at either side of the centered cardboard tube to shape the ends of the cracker.
- Apply a thin line of glue along the long edge of the crepe paper set away from the tube. Roll up the cracker towards the glued edge and hold it in place until the paper has adhered.
- Slightly pull out one of the uncut tubes at one end of the cracker to leave a 2 inch gap between it and the middle tube. Tie a piece of string tightly around the paper in this gap, to crimp up the paper and make the cracker shape. Remove the uncut tube entirely and tie a narrow silver ribbon around the string.
- Through the open end of the cracker, drop in a gift, a charm, a paper motto and other bits of frivolous fun, before repeating step 6 to close the other end of the cracker.
- Stick on several silver sprayed decorations to finish the cracker. Repeat the process to assemble enough crackers to group for impact.
