Decorating the table is one of my favourite Christmas traditions. It’s where the family come together and get to spend some of the day with no distractions from each other. This is why I try to keep them there for as long as possible and what better way than with the fun of crackers!

But who wants the regular silver, gold, read and green crackers full of useless gifts and rubbish jokes? (Ok, actually we’ll keep the jokes.) Why not make your own stylish crackers and fill them full of things your guests will love, and who knows, they might even stay at the table even longer!

Materials:

A4 paperDisposable roasting tinCracker snapsCardboard tubesStrong glueCordBlack and white nail varnishSkewer

Instructions:

1. Pour warm water into the roasting tin. Get a sheet of paper and the skewer ready. Take the lids off the nail varnish. You’ll need to work quickly before the varnish dries in the water. Pour the white varnish in first. You will see the top of the water go cloudy and then you will see patches of white appear.

Put down the white polish and quickly dribble the black varnish over the top of the white.

2. Use the skewer to gently move the varnish around in the tin to make a marbled effect.

3. Place the piece of A4 paper over the top of the water and varnish. Don’t dunk the paper under the water – you just want to transfer to varnish over from the top of the water onto the paper.

4. Cut pieces of paper tube so that you have two pieces slightly shorter than the middle. Make sure they all fit well inside the length of the paper.

5. Insert the snap into the tubes and glue them all onto one of the longer edges of the marbled paper. Leave to dry.

6. Roll the paper tubes along the paper and glue the other side to seal the paper and create the cracker.

7. Fold the ends into the inside of the paper tube and glue down to create neater ends.

8. Fill with treats, jokes and tons of confetti then cut a length of cord and tie knots in the gaps between the rolls.

Make at least one cracker per guest and watch the fun as people are covered in glitter and gifts! Just don’t think about the cleaning…