Well, my daughter made some DIY Christmas crackers this year and they were absolutely FABULOUS.
What she did was the following: She went to a couple of chemists and asked whether they could let her have any samples of anything. She got home with a bagful of samples of make-up, handcream, facecream, toothpaste, all sorts of stuff.
Then she collected some empty toilet rolls from work.
She sorted the samples out into "HIM" and "HER" stuff and placed them into the toilet rolls. Then she rolled the toilet rolls into thin-nish glossy, glittery paper and tied colourful wrapping band around near the ends so they looked exactly like high-class crackers.
They didn't crack of course, but they looked absolutely fabulous. Unfortunately by the time I realised we could take a pic to post here, we'd already "pulled" them. If she has any left at her house, I'll get her to take a pic.

Sounds like you enjoyed her efforts Helvetica. It's something I could do with the kids.
Thanks and all the best for New Year.