3 Super Easy DIY Chinese New Year Crafts

Chinese New Year is coming up!

I wanted to do a bunch of Chinese New Year crafts but our family was struck with a nasty bug. And because everything was so chaotic at home, I had little time to prepare crafts for my 4 year old. But of course, I had to prepare something for CNY (we’re Chinese, after all!)

Here are 3 super easy Chinese New Year crafts, complete with links for the printables, for all you moms that are too busy to come up with something elaborate this year. Haha. You’re welcome! 😉

1. Chinese Paper Lantern Collage using Red Envelopes

Reuse those red envelopes (angpaos!) that your kids got last Christmas.

1. Print a paper lantern template like this.
2. Cut some red envelopes into squares (plus points if the  envelope has nice red and gold patterns)
3. Bring out crayons, tape/glue and let your child decorate the lantern
4. Cut out the lantern template after decorating
5. Attach a yellow square paper at the bottom (I taped it at the back)
6. Let the child cut it to make vertical strips (see photo above!)
7. Attach a strip of yellow paper at the top to make the handle

* Idea came from Mandarin Readers!

2. Dragon Paper Bag Puppet

Super easy if you have a brown paper bag! So happy with the turnout as well.

1. Download this template and print
2. Color it in
3. Cut
4. Paste into a brown paper bag

* Got this from Pink Stripey Socks!

3. Chinese Zodiac Stick Puppets

There are so many designs to choose from because there are so many free Chinese Zodiac animal cliparts.

1. Download a set of Chinese Zodiac animal cliparts (just Google!)
2. Print them and cut
3. Stick them on popsicle sticks

That’s it! We used these to tell different versions of the story of The Great Race (legend of how the 12 Chinese Zodiacs came to be.)

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Hope you enjoyed your super easy Chinese New Year crafts for kids!

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!