If you're looking for some fun activities to do with your family during Chinese New Year, check out these 22 Chinese New Year craft and activity ideas! From making a dragon puppet to creating paper fortune cookies, there is something for everyone. So get your crafting supplies ready and join in the fun!
Chinese New Year Crafts for Kids
Chinese Dragon Puppet Craft
Our Chinese dragon puppets are a fun and festive craft for the occasion. Dragons represent power, good luck, and many other things that are celebrated in Chinese culture. Kids will have a blast making and playing with these puppets. The accordion fold body makes it easy to wiggle and wave these puppets around during play.
Paper Fortune Cookies
This paper fortune cookie makes a fun craft for Chinese New Year! Use our printable fortunes (motivational statements), make your own, or let the kids come up with their own ideas! Kids will love writing their own fortunes and placing them inside the cookies to exchange with friends or siblings.
Chinese New Year lanterns
Chinese paper lanterns have to be one of my favorite Chinese New Year arts and crafts! Get creative and decorate them before adding a battery-powered tealight.
Chinese Dragon Mask
If you're planning on going to a parade or a festival during Chinese New Year, make a Chinese dragon mask! Kids will love making and playing with these brightly colored masks made with cardstock and craft sticks. They can decorate it however they want and make their own unique design. They'll be roaring like dragons in no time.
Dragon Mask Template
We also have a simple Chinese dragon mask template that you can use to make a simple dragon mask if you are short on time. Simply print out the color version or print out the black and white version and add color and decorate it yourself!
Paper Plate Dragon Puppet
Paint, cut out, and assemble this paper plate dragon to make a fun puppet. It's easy to hold and move around, making it perfect for little hands. Your child will get hours of play out of this project. Kids will have lots of fun with this easy craft that is sure to bring some good luck during the Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year Activity Pages
We have plenty of fun activities to keep the kids entertained and busy. These Chinese New Year activity pages include a full set of Chinese zodiac coloring pages as well as activities like CNY Bingo, a word search, and Sudoku. They're a fun way to celebrate as well as learn a little about Chinese culture.We also have a set of Chinese New Year printables that includes a crossword, maze, and eye spy amongst other Chinese New Year themed activities.
Egg Box Dragon Puppet
Recycle some egg boxes to build a fun and engaging egg box dragon puppet with the kids. Little ones will need quite a bit of adult help with assembly, but they'll have loads of fun playing with their puppets during your CNY celebrations.
3D Chinese New Year Coloring Craft
Use our Chinese New Year printables to make your own 3D Chinese New Year Coloring Craft. It couldn't be simpler, just print out the pdf, color each part of the scene and then make up the craft following the directions on the printable. We have versions available for each of the zodiac animals.
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Chinese New Year Printable Crafts
You can also head to the Messy Little Monster printable shop to check out our Chinese New Year printable crafts.
Chinese New Year Paper Hats
Use our simple Chinese New Year hat templates to get yourself into the spirit of Chinese New Year. This is such a cute Chinese New Year arts and crafts activity for toddlers and preschoolers. We have several designs for you to choose from!
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Chinese Dragon Hat Craft
Here is another hat design that is perfect for Chinese New Year. Why not make a cute dragon hat!
Chinese New Year Cootie Catchers
If you are looking for something a little more unusual then check out this Chinese zodiac paper craft. kids will love making cootie catchers to represent each of the animals of the zodiac.
Chinese New Year Red Envelope Craft
At Chinese New Year it is tradition to give the gift of 'lucky' money wrapped in a red envelope decorated with ornate gold designs. Those who receive a red envelope are wished a year of good health, happiness, and luck. Use our Chinese New Year red envelope printable to make your own red envelopes ready to be filled with a small coin or gift.
Chinese Dragon Puppet
Here is another Chinese dragon puppet! Use the printable Chinese dragon puppet template to make a cute moving dragon
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More Chinese New Year Crafts and Activities for Kids
Traditional Chinese Paper Lanterns
It's not a celebration until you've decorated with some lovely Chinese paper lanterns for this important festival. Follow the step-by-step instructions from Chalk Academy (or use the template) to create lots of pretty lanterns in bright, bold colors.
Lion Masks
Learn about the Lion Dance, a traditional dance in Chinese culture for important festivities, and then make a Chinese New Year paper bag lion mask from Pink Stripey Socks. This is a super frugal craft—all you need is a paper bag, scissors, a marker, and tempera paint. Once the masks are dry, practice mimicking the lion dance moves!
Chinese New Year Banners
Some Chinese New Year banners are an easy and beautiful way to decorate your home or classroom. These beautiful red banners have wishes for good luck written in Chinese calligraphy. Get the printables from Chalk Academy.
Paper Plate Dragon Twirler
A Chinese New Year dragon twirler is a wonderful decoration to hang from the ceiling for your celebration, but it's fun for kids to play with, too. They'll enjoy making and decorating this colorful craft, and it's easy to make thanks to the printable template from Red Ted Art. Add a string to hang it from the ceiling or for the kids to hold on to while they put on some great dance performances with their friends or siblings.
Chinese Dragon Q-Tip Painting
With the printable, some paint, and cotton buds (q-tips), you can set up a fun activity for your child in minutes. This Chinese dragon cotton bud painting from Crafts on Sea is great for kids ages 2 and up. If your child can grasp a q-tip, this is super simple. It's also a fun introduction to the pointillism technique.
Handprint Dragon Puppet
Get all the kids in on the fun with a handprint dragon puppet like this one from Crafts by Ria. It's a great project for siblings to work on together. When they're finished, they can proudly show it off to their parents and relatives.
Easy Origami Dragon
This easy origami dragon from Red Ted Art is perfect for beginners. Unlike other origami dragons with lots of intricate folds and difficult instructions, this one is easy for kids. You can fold any number of dragons to use as decorations, or give them to friends and family members to get in on the fun.
Chinese New Year Shaker
Make a Chinese New Year Shaker like this one from In the Playroom to make some noise during the parade or celebrations. Paint it red for good luck and then decorate with sequins, stickers, or any embellishments you'd like. Pasta is a terrific noisemaker that doesn't fall out as easily as rice.
Dancing Dragon Puppet
Turn recycled materials into a fabulous dancing dragon puppet like this one from Hello, Wonderful. It's made with toilet paper tubes, newspaper, a plastic fruit basket, and a few other materials. The jointed body made with cardboard tubes and yarn allows the dragon puppet to dance around when the kids play with it.
Firecracker Craft
How fun and festive is this Chinese New Year firecracker craft by Mombrite? Firecrackers are an essential part of the CNY celebrations in China. She recommends reading the story of Nian for the reason behind the firecrackers—it's very interesting!
Mosaic Lantern Craft
This cute mosaic lantern from Crafts on Sea is perfect for toddlers and preschoolers. They can practice their scissor skills (or tear paper) to cut the pieces for the mosaic and then glue the pieces onto the template. It's great for fine motor practice and will look cute hanging on the fridge or wall.
Movable Chinese Dragon Craft
Get the kids excited for the festivities with this movable Chinese dragon paper plate craft by Crafts on Sea. Make the dragon dance by holding the plate in one hand and wiggling the dragon's stick with another.
Chinese Paper Lantern
Here's another fun Chinese paper lantern from Crafts by Ria. It's a different shape than the one mentioned above, but it's still beautiful and festive. Hang them up around your home or on the porch to get ready for the big day.
Chinese Red Envelopes
Chinese red envelopes are an important part of the celebration, and introducing these to your kids or students can help them learn more about the traditions for this festival. Print the template from Chalk Academy, cut, and decorate the envelopes with sequins, stick-on jewels, or other embellishments to personalise them.
We hope you enjoyed this list of Chinese New Year crafts for kids (Lunar New Year crafts) and found it useful. If so, we would love for you to share it by pinning it or sharing it on Facebook! Happy Chinese New Year from all of us at Messy Little Monster.
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