Lunar New Year takes place each year to mark the beginning of the traditional Lunar calendar. It is a special event in the Chinese calendar which brings families together to celebrate and look towards the year ahead with hope and meaning.
The date of the Lunar New Year changes each year, and the next event will fall on the 29th January 2025, heralding the Year of the Snake. The colourful and joyful festivities continue for 15 days until 12th February 2025 when the atmospheric Lantern Festival is celebrated.
From making your own decorations to gifts for friends and family, why not join in with Lunar New Year in 2025 with these fun and easy craft projects for children to make at home. We’ve gathered 20 Chinese New Year crafts for kids that children of all ages will love making.
Many of the crafts we’ve included are papercraft, so buying supplies won’t break the bank or be difficult to source.
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Chinese New Year crafts for kids
1. DIY Lanterns
Children will love making these colourfully decorated paper lanterns to hang around the home. Easy to make, all you need is some patterned paper, a compass, scissors and glue.
Learn how to make Chinese lanterns with our easy guide
2. Paper fortune cookies
Who doesn’t love opening a fortune cookie to discover what their future may hold? This papercraft version of the cookie is a fun craft to make and a hidden message can be added for a grand reveal on the day.
Follow our paper fortune cookie guide to learn how to make your own.
3. Paper money wallet
At Chinese Lunar New Year it is traditional to give money to friends and family in a red envelope to wish them good luck for the year ahead. Children will love making their own unique papercraft money wallets and learning about this ancient tradition.
Learn how to make it with our handy papercraft money wallet guide.
4. Chinese dragon mask
Join in with the festivities with a characterful Chinese dragon mask. Children will love coming up with their own designs, or Messy Little Monster has a template you can download and print. You’ll just need coloured card, glue, glitter and craft sticks.
Find out how to make a Chinese dragon mask with this guide by Messy Little Monster.
5. Paper plate dragon twirler
Young children will enjoy getting messy with paints while making this colourful craft that hangs from the ceiling. You’ll just need a paper plate, coloured paper, paint, glue and scissors.
Red Ted Art has a downloadable and printable template and explains how to make it.
6. Fan dragon paper decoration
Creating this characterful fan dragon is a fun activity children of all ages will enjoy doing. You’ll just need colourful paper to create this beautiful fan dragon, and can either download a dragon head and tail or draw your own.
Twinkl has a free download and explains how to make it.
7. Chinese New Year shaker
This colourful shaker is a craft younger children will adore making and using to celebrate Chinese New Year. All you need is paper plates, pasta, paint, popsicle sticks and glue. Eco glitter, confetti or other sparkly gems, could be a nice addition if you have them in your craft supplies.
Find out how to make your own shaker with this easy-to-follow In the Playroom guide.
8. Fai chun messages
Learn how to write Fai chun messages and give them to friends and family to celebrate Chinese New Year. This is a fun activity for older children, and a great way to learn how to write hanzi characters. Fai chuns such as ‘Happy New Year’, ‘good luck’ or ‘health and happiness’ are traditionally hung in doorways to celebrate Chinese New Year.
Mummy Wishes has a free downloadable template and three ideas for writing Fai chuns.
9. Dragon puppet
In Chinese culture, dragons symbolise good luck, courage and strength. Using simple craft supplies found around the home, children will enjoy making this dragon-inspired craft and hosting their puppet shows.
Messy Little Monster has a free template and explains how to make it.
10. Dragon finger puppet
After making the larger dragon puppet above, why not have a go at creating a dragon finger puppet? You could design and cut out your own dragon or use a downloadable template for inspiration.
Red Ted Art has a free downloadable printable dragon finger puppet template.
11. Cotton bud dragon painting
A great activity for encouraging concentration and hand strength, young children will have fun using cotton buds and paint to design their own dragons. Simply stamp the cotton bud in paint to create a dragon scale pattern. You can either draw your own dragon or use a free printable download.
Crafts on sea has a free template and explains how to create.
12. Toilet roll lanterns
A twist on the DIY paper lantern craft is this easy toilet roll lantern that young children will love decorating in lashings of red paint and gold eco glitter. Cheap and easy to make, you’ll just need toilet rolls, paint, glue and eco glitter or gold paint.
Learn how to make it with In the Playroom craft guide.
13. Chinese suncatcher
Decorate your windows and catch the sun with these colourful Chinese suncatchers. You’ll need coloured tissue paper (red and gold are popular colours to mark Lunar New Year), black card or paper, scissors and glue.
The Gingerbread House explains how to make a suncatcher.
14. Egg carton dragon
Save your empty egg cartons to make this fun dragon character. Egg cartons are the perfect shape for the dragon’s head and you’ll also need paint, coloured paper, glue, scissors and a stapler to assemble the dragon.
Activity Village has this handy guide which explains how to make it.
15. Chinese fairy lights
Adorn your home with sparkling fairy lights by making tiny lanterns to hang over each light. Using a similar technique to the larger lanterns detailed above, these lanterns can be made with patterned paper to make them extra special.
Red Ted Art explains how to make fairy lanterns.
Help your celebrations sparkle with these Chinese New Year crafts for kids
Children of all ages will love celebrating the Lunar New Year with this selection of colourful and fun craft ideas. Marking the Chinese New Year is also a great way to learn about Chinese culture and traditions, and enjoy spending time with friends and family. So get ready for the Year of the Snake in 2025 and have hours of fun crafting your own dragons, lanterns and decorations.
New Year’s craft ideas for kids
If you fancy throwing a New Year’s party to mark the start of 2025, why not get your kids involved in the celebrations by making some of these exciting New Year’s craft ideas?
Make countdown clocks, paper sparklers, noisy party horns and much more with our handy guide and get the new year off with a bang!
