Get all Jack Skellington and make Halloween out of a Christmas tradition! Try this simple tutorial for Halloween crackers – make them, add treats, and pull them apart to hear them snap. A perfect Halloween activity.

Have you ever tried Christmas crackers? They’re a totally fun tradition — I actually made crackers for my whole family a few years back. We did them old school style and stuffed them with paper crowns, jokes, and tiny treats.

Then I had some cracker snaps left over and made Valentine crackers the next year. And guess what I just found in my supplies when I was cleaning things out? More cracker snaps!

So we resurrected the project one more time for a little post on how to make crackers for a fun Halloween activity.

Psst — before the how-to, be sure to join my VIP group below, where I’ll send more of my very best holiday DIYs straight to ya.

More Halloween activity Ideas

I took a second to dive into our archives and dig up our most popular Halloween DIY and activity ideas for you!

Be sure to pin your favorites so that you can find them again easily.

What Is a Christmas Cracker (Or Halloween Cracker)?

If you literally have no idea what I’m talking about, crackers are basically little tubes that you stuff full of trinkets or treats.

There’s a little cracker snap inside, so when you pull on either side of the cracker, it makes a loud snap, the tube pops open, and all of the treats fall out! What’s not to like about that?!

This was especially fun this time because now I have kids to give these to! I actually let Hank and Mags help me choose a couple of tiny Halloween trinkets from the craft store to stuff inside.

And even though they knew what was in there, they were insanely excited to pop them open! There’s something very satisfying about this Halloween activity.

Supplies You’ll Need

Aside from the cracker snaps, you probably already have everything you need for this Halloween activity.

Materials:

cracker snaps
cardstock
clear tape
double-sided tape
thin decorative paper (cheap wrapping paper is great!)
ribbon
scissors
tiny gifts to stuff inside

How to Make Halloween Crackers

Make Time: 20 Minutes

Start by cutting all of your pieces to the right size. Cut a 5.5″ square of cardstock and a piece of decorative paper that’s 18″ x 7″. The paper shouldn’t be too thick, or it’ll be hard to pull your cracker apart. Cheap, thin wrapping paper is perfect. Gather the rest of your materials. (Tip! If you just have plain paper, draw a pattern on it like I did.)
Roll the cardstock into a tube and tape closed.
Place the tube on your paper. Insert a snap into the tube and center it. Tape the ends of the snap down onto the paper on either side of the tube.
Roll the rest of the paper around the tube and secure with hidden double-sided tape. Gather the paper at one end of the tube and tie with a ribbon.
Insert your toys and trinkets into the other end of the tube, being careful not to pack it too tightly. Tie off this end of the paper around the tube and trim the ends if necessary.

Try this Halloween Activity with Kids

Your cracker is ready! You can have people open them tug-of-war style, where one person grabs on either end and pulls, or one person can just pull apart both sides by themselves.

The cracker snaps work best if you give the cracker a sharp, hard pull. Make sure kids are ready to hear a loud, sharp, snapping sound.

Places to Use Halloween Crackers

These would be super cute for a class project or a treat at a class party!

If you’re super ambitious you could even hand these out to trick-or-treaters, depending on how many you usually get. Or you could just do like we did, and make them for our own kiddos to enjoy. Have fun! xoxo

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Halloween Cracker Activity

Yield: Halloween Crackers

Active Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Estimated Cost: $20

Get all Jack Skellington and make Halloween out of a Christmas tradition! Try this simple tutorial for Halloween crackers - make them, add treats, and pull them apart to hear them snap. A perfect Halloween activity.

Materials

cracker snaps
cardstock
clear tape
double-sided tape
thin decorative paper (cheap wrapping paper is great!)
ribbon
tiny gifts to stuff inside

Tools

scissors

Instructions

Start by cutting all of your pieces to the right size. Cut a 5.5" square of cardstock and a piece of decorative paper that's 18" x 7". The paper shouldn't be too thick, or it'll be hard to pull your cracker apart. Cheap, thin wrapping paper is perfect. Gather the rest of your materials. (Tip! If you just have plain paper, draw a pattern on it like I did.)
Roll the cardstock into a tube and tape closed.
Place the tube on your paper. Insert a snap into the tube and center it. Tape the ends of the snap down onto the paper on either side of the tube.
Roll the rest of the paper around the tube and secure with hidden double-sided tape. Gather the paper at one end of the tube and tie with a ribbon.
Insert your toys and trinkets into the other end of the tube, being careful not to pack it too tightly. Tie off this end of the paper around the tube and trim the ends if necessary.

Notes

To open the cracker, hold onto each end and give a sharp, fast outward tug. You can also have two people hold the cracker, one at each end, and pull apart like tug of war.

Tell young children to be prepared for a sharp, loud snapping sound when it opens!