The Poppers or Crackers...Our contribution To dinner

In between dinner and dessert, the popper production happens.  This was our contribution to Christmas dinner.  It includes crossing your arms and pulling the popper of the person next to you.  Out comes confetti, a hat, a joke, a prize, and sometimes a candy.  This year, there was a lot of confetti, sorry Aunt N!

and here's an action picture of the hats, because CK says, "you can't eat your canoli until you have your hat on"

The reason why we were in charge of this, is because I decided I loved this tradition so much that I would included it as one of the DIY projects for our wedding.  My mom and I created this vision and it was a lot of work, so I actually bought them for Christmas dinner, maybe next year, I will make them again...

What you need:

-Toilet paper roll
-paper hat
-prize
-joke
-confetti
-popper part
-tissue paper or wrapping paper
-ribbon for ties



How we did it:

First, I had everyone in the world saving toilet paper rolls for me.  Since we had so many guests, we needed a lot of rolls.  Sometimes, I would come into work, check my mailbox, and have treats in there.  I think some people thought I was strange, but it's always fun to find new uses for things you would normally throw out, right?

Next, we had to collect all the ingredients. The paper hats and the popper part were the most important part because I knew the hats would make cute photos and CK finds them important.  Now, if I was Martha, I would have made the paper hats myself, but I was starting to run out of time.  I found the hats and the poppers at this site in the section titled "Fill your own" and they shipped them so fast!  I used the handmade confetti of pink and silver leaves from an earlier project for the confetti and googled wedding jokes to toss them into the poppers.  I added a wedding packaged mint and a fake silver ring for the prizes.  They turned out great!

Throughout the past year, I have become a lot closer with Ck's cousins J and J as we all attempted to plan our weddings.  Because of this, I asked them if they could give the toast and explain the "how-to" for the poppers.  Though most people didn't get it or were talking throughout the speech, it meant a lot to us to have this tradition included and for the two of them to be part of our special day :)

Does your family have any fun traditions for the holidays?  (maybe you could include them in your wedding too!)