Tuesday Shoesday ~ Chatty Crackers

This week’s Tuesday Shoesday blog post is a little bit different. This week I’m sharing a DIY tutorial for making Christmas crackers. But it’s not as far removed from a ‘normal’ Tuesday Shoesday article as you’d think, because I’m filling my festive favours with Chatty Feet!Yes, those cheeky little socks that I’ve posting Instagram pics of all year have found their way into my Christmas celebrations and I actually can’t think of a better gift to give to your guests around the festive dinner table. I’m having an early Christmas celebration with my niece and nephew because I won’t get to see them on Christmas day so I thought that this would be the ideal time to create a cracker tutorial and share my ideas with you all.1. First of all, decide on a pair of Chatty Feet for each person around your dinner table, I’ve gone for funky matching ‘Meggy’ socks for father and son, pink ‘Venus’ socks for mother and daughter, plus some funny celebrity’ socks; Kate Middle-toe, Professor Brian Sox, Sigmund and Yoko Mono. I’m already giggling to myself just imagining all the shenanigans around the Christmas table!2. I’ve also gathered together some cracker essentials – joke, hat and toys – which I’ve taken out of last year’s leftover Christmas crackers. You could always pick up a cheap pack of crackers from a pound shop and either add the Chatty Feet into these bought crackers (be sure to take out the snap though!) or dismantle them and use the fillings in your own crackers. I’ve added a couple of chocolate coins to each cracker too for an after-dinner treat, yum!3. To make the crackers, use two cardboard toilet roll middles – one for the centre, and one cut in half for the ends of the crackers. If you don’t have that many empty loo rolls lying around, you can use cardboard to wrap around one loo-roll template and tape it together to create your own cardboard centres. 4. Fill your center tube with a pair of Chatty Feet socks, a hat, joke (maybe write your own), stickers for the little ones and chocolate coins. Again, no snap is needed – this might singe the socks and we definitely don’t want that, do we?! 5. Position the tubes on the reverse-side of a rectangle of festive wrapping paper with the two smaller pieces at the ends and leaving a gap between these and the center tube. Use double-sided tape or a glue-stick to attach the paper around the tubes and roll up. Tape the end of the paper down.6. To make the cracker shape, squeeze the paper in the gaps between the tubes and gently twist the paper before tying up with ribbon bows. I’ve used a different color ribbon for each guest or you could even add a name tag to ensure that each recipient receives the right pair of socks!The crackers look great on my festive table and they were so much fun when we pulled them open during our early Christmas dinner. Everyone was very surprised to find a pair of Chatty Feet rolled up inside their crackers and immediately slipped them onto their hands to use as puppets at the dinner table. It was great fun hearing my husband reading out his cracker joke in his best Professor Brian Sox voice! Everyone appreciated the homemade nature of my Christmas crackers and we all enjoyed getting an unexpected Christmas gift at the table – it made the meal even more special and definitely added to the fun festive atmosphere, especially when my brother attempted to eat his entire meal whilst wearing the socks… on his hands! Let me know if you have a go at making your own Chatty Crackers and I’d love to see photos of your own festive DIYs so please leave me a comment or tweet me @Cassiefairy