21 Chinese New Year Craft Activities For Kids
Image Credit: Annie Spratt
Chinese New Year, now becoming more widely know as Lunar New Year, is is the Asian festival that celebrates the beginning of a new year on the traditional Chinese calendar or lunar calendar. The festival is commonly referred to as the Spring Festival, and is usually celebrated in January or February.
It is celebrated all across China, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and by Chinese communities in almost every country.
Chinese New Year is associated with several myths and customs. The festival was traditionally a time to honour deities as well as ancestors. But best of all it is a time for friends and families to get together, celebrate, eat, let off fireworks and exchange gifts.
Each Chinese Year is names after one of twelve animals, which repeat every tweleve years. You can find the Chinese Lunar Year for any date using our Chinese Astrological Sign Finder.
Another fun way to celebrate Chinese new year is to decorate your home, so why not try out some fun crafts and use what you make to decorate your home for your Chinese New Year celebrations?
Chinese New Year Craft Ideas
Here are some fun crafts about Chinese New Year for kids to try.
- Lucky Cat Craft
- An Easy Paper Lantern To Make
- Chinese New Year Dragon
- Good Luck!
- Chinese Fan Craft
- Make a Folded Fan
- Chinese Good Luck Ornament
- Chinese Dragon Puppet
- Chinese Dragon Collage
- Chinese New Year Drum
- Blossom Tree Collage
- Dragon Paper Tube Craft
- Chinese Dragon Clothespin Puppets
- Mosaic Chinese Lantern Craft
- Chinese Lantern Suncatcher
- Origami Fortune Cookies
- Chinese New Year Colouring Pages
- Chinese Dragon Mask
- Chinese New Year Wordsearch
- Cupcake Liner Dragon Craft
- Chinese New Year Lights
- Chinese Red Money Gift Envelope
The waving lucky cat though of as a classic symbol of China - but in actual fact it is Japanese! These simple waving cats are made from cut out paper.
Paper lanterns are a popular decoration for Chinese New Year. Make and decorate them in red and gold for authenticity, as these colours are regarded as lucky in China.
Here is how to make a easy paper lantern which could also be made for Christmas, Halloween or any time as a pretty way to decorate your home.
If you would like to design your own paper lanterns here is a free printable paper lantern template (PDF). The template is completely blank so that you can create your own design with pens, pencils, crayons or collage.
Dragons are one of the national animals of China, and a Dragon dance is one of the highlights of any Chinese New Year celebration.
Make this mask and create your own Dragon dance.
Chinese New Year celebrations are all about wishing your family and friends a happy, fortunate and prosperous year. This symbol means "Good Luck" in Chinese.
Fans are an accessory that have been carried in China for thousands of year, and while they had a practical application - for keeping you cool - the beauty of the decoration was very important as well.
These fans are made from paper plates, so that they are easy to make and add your own design.
The earliest fans used in China were flat, folding fans became more popular from the 7th Century.
This craft idea shows you how to make a fan that you could fold up and save to decorate your house for Chinese New Year for several years.
Hanging a good luck symbol in your house is not just for Chinese New Year, but is thought to bring good fortune throughout the year.
This childrens craft would look lovely hung up anywhere around the house. A free printable is available.
This Dragon Puppet could be used to create a Dragon dance or hang up as a decoration. Wash up discarded plastic cups and use fabric scraps to make this craft idea into a recycling project.
This clever Dragon collage would make a lovely card to sent to friends or family, made from scrap paper or old magazines.
Get the New Year off with a bang by making this Chinese drum craft. Drums are a traditional part of Chinese music and making loud noises is believed to ward off bad spirits. This is why the New Year celebrations also include fireworks.
In Chinese culture cherry blossoms represent feminine beauty and power, and also of love.
This dragon uses a toilet paper roll to make a fire breathing dragon to get the new year off to a good start.
These super clothespin dragons are made using free printables from Easy Peasy and Fun. You can print them off in colour ready to cut out, or in black and white so that you can colour them in yourself.
Download the free printable template at Crafts On Sea and make this mosaic using any paper that you have around - great for using up scraps or recycling from magazines or leaflets.
Catch the first of the early spring sunshine with this Chinese New Year lantern suncatcher.
If you have been to a Chinese restaurant you may have had a fortune cookie at the end of the meal.
You can't eat these, but you can write a motto on the inside then fold up these paper versions to open up as part of your Chinese New Year celebrations.
These printable PDF Chinese New Year colouring pages are free to download, and there is one of every chinese zodiac year.
You can make this Chinese dragon mask using the free printable template at The Inspiration Edit. Colour it in, cut it out and attach to a popsicle stick.
A free printable Chinese New Year wordsearch to download - can you find all the animal names hiding in this puzzle?
Create this scaly looking dragon using cupcake liners. Fabulous!
These lanterns are very clever - they use a battery operated candle to illuminate them.
Download the free printable template of the Chinese lettering from Activities for Kids if you are not confident about copying the symbols.
Gifts are given to children at Chinese New Year, and also to any guests who are single. Giving money as a gift is very popular and the money should be given in a red envelope for extra good luck.
Here are some more ideas for traditional and modern Chinese New Year Gift Ideas For Children