Christmas Cracker

The first Christmas Tree lit with electrical lights was in 1882. Edward H Johnson, an associate of inventor Thomas Edison, was Vice-President of the Edison Electric Light Company, which is now known as Con Edison. Johnson had bulbs the size of walnuts, hand wired, in red, blue and white specially made for him. They were initially called Christmas Tree Lamps! The tree was in his private home on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Most newspapers ignored this phenomenon considering it a marketing ploy. The story was published in a Detroit newspaper which dubbed him as the “Father of Electric Christmas Lights.” By 1900, businesses started stringing lights in their windows. For the average person, this was still an expensive decoration. Up until 1930, candles were still used in most homes, and then lights started becoming the majority replacement in most homes.

In 1895, President Grover Cleveland proudly displayed the first electrically lit tree in the White House. It was a huge tree featuring more than 100 multicolored lights. The first commercially manufactured Christmas tree lamps were produced by General Electric Co of Harrison, NJ. They were strings of multiples 8 sockets and each socket took a miniature two-candela carbon-filament lamp. From that point on electrically illuminated Christmas trees, but only indoors, grew with mounting enthusiasm in the United States and elsewhere.

Thanks to Andrea Walford for this Christmas Cracker project.

1. Using tissue paper: Put the tissue paper in front of you with the shortest side facing you. Fold it up in half to find the half way point and then open it back up again.  Take the bottom end and fold it up to the center line you just created. Then rotate the paper around so you have the other end in front of you and do the same thing (fold up to the center).   So at this point, each side has been folded up to the center.  Now, take the side you have and fold it up to the center again, then rotate it and fold the other side up to the center as well.  Be sure to smooth out all sides each time to you do it.  Then, fold the paper in half one final time. 

2. Cut along the bottom (non-folded side) of the folded piece of tissue paper, using paper snips or Fringe scissors. Repeat with the second folded piece of tissue paper.

3. Wrap the first piece of tissue paper around one end of the toilet paper roll, sticking it to the roll as you wrap, using Tombow multi-purpose liquid glue. Trim off any excess tissue paper, using paper snips. Allow time to dry.

4. . Gather the tissue paper fringes and tie a 6” piece of baker’s twine around the tissue paper. Trim the ends of the baker’s twine.

5. Fill the toilet paper roll with small candy or small toys. Stuff a coffee filter or a tissue in the end, to keep the candy/toys from falling out.

6. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the other side of the Christmas cracker. (You can remove the coffee filter or tissue from the toilet paper roll just before you wrap the 6” piece of baker’s twine around the tissue paper.)

7. Sticka3 ¾” x 6” piece of  DSP to the toilet paper roll, using  liquid glue.

8. Stick a 6 ½” piece of  ribbon around the Christmas cracker, covering the seam between the DSP and the tissue paper using sticky strip. Repeat on the second side, using the second 6 ½” piece of  ribbon.

9. Wrap a 12” piece of  ribbon around one end of the gathered tissue paper and tie it into a bow. Trim the ends. Repeat on the second side with the second 12” piece of ribbon.

10. Stamp the greeting onto a scrap piece of Whisper White CS.

11. Align the greeting in the window of the Extra Large Oval punch and punch it out.

12. Punch out a label from a scrap piece of cardstock, using the Designer Label punch.

13. Center and stick the punched out greeting onto the label, using Tombow multi-purpose liquid glue. 

14. Stick the matted greeting on the Christmas label, using sticky strip.