• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Pillar Box Blue

  • Home
  • Denim
  • Maps
  • Valentines
  • Crafts
    • Sweaters
    • Marimekko Crafts and DIY’s
    • Seasonal
  • DIY/Upcycling
    • All Upcycling
    • Ikea Hacks
    • Tin Cans
    • Round Ups
  • Christmas
  • About Me
    • What Is Upcycling What You Need To Know
    • Press & Working With Me
    • Link Ups
    • Privacy Policy
    • DISCLOSURE
    • Contact Me
You are here: Home / christmas / Make Your Own Christmas Crackers With Old Maps

Make Your Own Christmas Crackers With Old Maps

12th December 2018 by Claire Armstrong 12 Comments

  • Share
  • Tweet

How To Make Your Own Christmas Crackers Using Vintage Maps

One of the best things about the Christmas dinner is the crackers on the table! And handmade Christmas crackers are the best!

Also, it’s so easy to make your own Christmas crackers!

You can use paper that matches your Christmas table decor or personalize them by using maps. I adore vintage maps as they conjure up romantic images of travels and exploration. Or they just trigger memories of places you once lived, where you met your loved one, or of special vacations.

Also, vintage roadmaps can be bought very cheaply. Often cheaper than craft paper or wrapping paper, which makes for very affordable homemade map crackers.affordable. You’ll be repurposing too! Which is always a good thing. Luckily with a lot of vintage roadmaps, the roads are marked in red and the background is often white and green. To me those are the colours of Christmas.

When you make your own Christmas crackers not only do you get to choose the design but you also get to choose what goes inside them. As well as the obligatory paper hat, you can write your own cheesy jokes and choose your little trinket.

The gifts can be tailored to the person likely to pull the handmade Christmas cracker. That could be something homemade, sweets and chocolates for kids. My favourite is a cute miniature gin bottle. Just for the adults of course! However, I have to be careful with that one as the contents of the crackers tend to go flying when pulled so fragile (glass) gifts may get broken.

How to make your own Christmas Crackers with vintage maps

This post contains Amazon affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to see my disclosure policy.

What you need to make your own Christmas crackers

    • Vintage maps – I use old roadmaps. I pick the ones that tend to have more Christmassy colours such as red, green and white. You can also use printouts of old maps from vintage atlas’s. There are some cool vintage North Pole maps on Pictureboxblue, which I think would make great handmade Christmas crackers.
    • Toilet roll cardboard tubes – 1 for each cracker
    • Velvet ribbon in red or green – I used a ribbon about 6mm thick.

what you need to make map Christmas crackers

    • Scissors, ruler, pen, sticky tape and a glue stick.

What to put inside your handmade map Christmas crackers…

  • Christmas cracker snaps – that’s what makes the bang when you pull the cracker and the best bit!
  • Tissue paper hats – You can easily buy these online or make your own (tutorial here).

Cracker paper hats and snaps

  • Trinkets – Instead of the normal useless rubbish you get with shop bought crackers (unless you spend a fortune). You can choose your own trinkets and gifts. From miniature spirit bottles for adults, handmade keyrings, jewelry or chocolates. The possibilities are endless as long as they fit inside the cardboard tube.
  • Jokes – There is nothing like a cheesy Christmas joke to get the whole table groaning. It’s fun trying to guess what the punchline is going to be and gets everyone young and old involved in the banter around the table. You are welcome to print out and use the same cracker jokes I have for my handmade crackers (download here). Or you can find 50 of the best ones here.

    Free printable Christmas cracker jokes for your handmade Christmas crackers.

  • Tags /labels – These are optional embellishments to make your own Christmas crackers more personal. You can place tags with names on the front of the handmade Christmas crackers and double them up as a place name. For my map Christmas crackers and to keep with the travel theme I made some mini airline tags (download here). I used destinations that are special for those who will be sitting around my Christmas table this festive season.

Airline tags for handmade map Christmas crackers

How to Make your own Christmas Crackers

    1. First cut up your maps to a rectangle 17cm by 31cm. You can either use scissors or a rotary cutter if you want a straighter edge. If you are using downloaded maps, the A4 paper is slightly shorter than 31cm. Don’t worry about this. Just make the handmade Christmas crackers with the A4 printout. But bear in mind you may have to cut 5-10mm off the length of your cardboard tube for it to fit properly.

Map sheets for handmade map Christmas crackers.

    1. Next take one piece of map paper turn it over and mark the midpoint lengthways. Fold up both ends of the map so that they meet in the middle. Crease this fold. Next fold the map back on itself so that the creased folds touch.

    1. With a ruler mark a line on the back of the map paper 2cm from the folds. Then using a pair of scissors cut out triangles of paper about 5mm all along the egde of the folds to the drawn line. Make sure you start 5mm from the end and finish 5mm before the end (see diagram).

    1. Next unfold the map and lay it flat. With the map face down lay the cardboard tube onto the middle of the paper (inbetween the triangle cuts). Thread the cracker snap through the middle of the tube and tape it to both end of the map to keep it in place. Then place all the other things you want in the cracker inside the cardboard tube. Such as the hat, cheesy Christmas joke and gift.

  1. Finally, to finish off roll up the map and secure it using the glue stick. Then wrap 2 lengths of velvet ribbon (approx 18cm) around the cracker. Either end of the cradboard tube and pull the ribbon tight and tie it in place.

Handmade Christmas crackers from vintage road maps

Make your own christmas crackers with vintage maps

Vintage map Christmas cracker on dinner plate

How to make your own Christmas crackers from maps

For many years I was a Beaver Scout leader and I used to get my Beavers to make their own Christmas crackers each year. We didn’t use maps for these handmade Christmas crackers but old comics such as the Beano. They would have fun thinking up their own Christmas jokes to put inside along with a homemade paper hat and some treats.

I also think that a giant handmade Christmas cracker is a great way to wrap a gift at Christmas. And if you use a personalized map to make that giant cracker with it will only just add to the gift.

You may want to check out some of my other map themed Christmas posts.

Map Christmas Trees
DIY Heart Map Ornament
Repurposed Map Decorations
Map Paper Rosettes
Printable 3d Map Star Decorations
Repurposed Wood Map Ornaments

For more thrifty Christmas ideas visit cheapthriftyliving.com

Make your own christmas crackers with vintage maps Make your own christmas crackers with vintage maps How to make your own Christmas crackers from vintage road maps


Filed Under: christmas, Crafts, Maps, Seasonal Tagged With: christmas cracker, Christmas crackers, crackers, handmade Christmas cracker, handmade Christmas crackers, handmade cracker, make your own christmas cracker, map christmas, map Christmas crackers, Map crackers

Previous Post: « How To Make A Vintage Wooden Thread Spool Ornament
Next Post: How To Style A Christmas Vintage Printers Tray »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. JenS

    12th November 2020 at 5:07 pm

    These are just gorgeous! Love the use of maps and the idea to put mini booze bottles in the crackers. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      12th November 2020 at 5:08 pm

      Thank you so much, we love crackers in this household. Its something my kids look forward to on Christmas day.

      Reply
  2. Mindy Jollie

    16th October 2019 at 6:19 pm

    I love the idea of using vintage maps for wrapping your own Christmas crackers! My husband and I want some good party favors for our Christmas party this year. We’ll have to order or make some.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      17th October 2019 at 7:01 am

      They are easy to make and would make good favours you can put hat gifts you want inside.

      Reply
  3. Linda at Mixed Kreations

    23rd December 2018 at 10:04 pm

    This looks like fun! I’ve never made crackers, but you make them look easy. If I had more time I would make some for the grandkids and fill with goodies. The little ones would love that.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      24th December 2018 at 11:50 am

      Thank you, they are the kids favourite thing about the Christmas dinner so we’ll worth making.

      Reply
  4. Julie

    20th December 2018 at 12:08 pm

    Awh, you’ve taken me on a trip down memory lane. When I was a kid, making the crackers was always my job, I remember lots of crepe paper, and paper doilies one year. I remember my mum moaning that it was hard to find enough gift ideas that were small enough, in the shops you find something thinking it’s perfect only to get home and find it doesn’t quite fit!
    I love your idea to use maps, they look fab.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      20th December 2018 at 2:05 pm

      Thank you, Julie. I love to make crackers every year!

      Reply
  5. Jen from California

    19th December 2018 at 6:53 pm

    I love the idea of making them myself! You are right, this is not a traitional American tradition but it should be. I usually buy them every year but love the idea of making them and plan to whip up a batch tonight. Already printed out the jokes. I have everything but the noise-sticks so am going to improvise with confetti!? Thanks very much for the directions.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      19th December 2018 at 7:41 pm

      Thank you. They are such fun and my kids would go mad if we didn’t have them at Christmas. Good luck with them.

      Reply
  6. Velvet

    14th December 2018 at 7:35 am

    That’s a brilliant idea! I love it.

    Reply
    • Claire Armstrong

      14th December 2018 at 5:45 pm

      Aww, thank you so much ?

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Follow Me

Subscribe to newsletter

Search This Website

Denim feather wall decor

How To Make Denim Feather Wall Decor

Tiled square Boho Moroccan planters

Make Beautiful Moroccan Planters In Under 10 Minutes

9 unique blue jean rug DIY's

How To Make A Blue Jean Rug, 12 Unique Ways

Free printable maps

Wonderful Free Printable Vintage Maps To Download

DIY No Sew Denim Rug

How To Make A Cool Denim Rug Without Sewing

Copyright © 2021 Pillar Box Blue on the Foodie Pro Theme