Our favorite Lunar New Year activities for kids and crafts for Chinese New Year! If you’re wondering how is Lunar New Year celebrated for kids, what can I do for Chinese New Year with family, or need fun ideas for Spring Festival, add these kids activities to your list and lesson plans! It’s a fun way to celebrate different cultures, cultural traditions, and cultural celebrations!
List Of Best Lunar New Year Activities For Kids
What can kids do for Chinese New Year?
- Make a dancing Chinese Dragon craft and do a dragon dance
- Color eggs red for good luck / good fortune and joy
- Cook homemade dumplings (potstickers) and learn about traditional food
- Make a Chinese New Year drum
- Learn how to fold origami
- Get a list of the best Chinese New Year picture books for celebrating Lunar New Year with preschoolers and toddlers
- Create a paper plate dragon puppet
- Make a paper Chinese fan
- Make a Chinese New Year sensory bin for little hands to practice fine motor skills
- Learn how to write your name with Chinese characters
- Look up your Chinese zodiac sign animal (and learn about the different Chinese zodiac animals for New Year every year)
- Make fortune cookies (but learn about the history of fortune cookies first!) – ditch the paper fortune cookies and make ones you can really eat!
- Get red envelopes for good luck
- Make Chinese lanterns crafts or paper lanterns
- Learn how to use chopsticks
- Make a paper Chinese New Year firecrackers craft
- Attend a Chinese New Year event or Lunar New Year celebration in your area (tip: search Chinese New Year events near me)
Our favorites ideas for Chinese New Year / ideas for Lunar New Year are below!
Our 5 Best Chinese New Year Crafts And Favorite Lunar New Year Ideas
These are our crafts for Chinese New Year and recipes for Lunar New Year that we’ve made and loved over the years! I hope you love celebrating Lunar New Years as much as we did with these fun kids activities!
Idea #1: Dye Red Eggs For Good Luck In The Chinese New Year
Did you know that dyed red eggs are a traditional symbol in Chinese culture, and they are often associated with various celebrations, including Chinese New Year?
Red is a significant color in Chinese culture, symbolizing good luck, happiness, and prosperity.
While red eggs are not exclusive to Chinese New Year and can be part of other celebrations, they do hold special significance during the Lunar New Year festivities, symbolizing the renewal of life, good luck, and the hope for a prosperous future.
To Dye Red Eggs For Chinese New Year:
- Start with our easy peel hard-boiled eggs recipe that have been cooled.
- In a bowl, mix 1/2 cup of boiling water, 1 teaspoon of white vinegar, and 20 drops of red food coloring (or more, depending on the color you want). You can adjust the amount of food coloring to achieve the desired shade of red. TIP: Chinese New Year red eggs are usually a vibrant red.
- Dip the eggs into the dye, making sure they are fully submerged.
- Leave the eggs in the dye for 15 minutes or until they reach the desired shade of red.
- Once the eggs are the desired color, remove them from the dye and let them dry completely.
GET TIPS FOR DYEING RED EGGS EVENLY WITHOUT WHITE SPOTS
Idea #2: Make A Chinese Dancing Dragon Craft (Chinese New Year Dragon Puppet)
This is one of the most fun crafts we’ve ever made – not just for a Lunar New Year craft, but for any on our fun craft list! I wouldn’t necessarily call it an easy craft, but it’s fun dragon crafts to do over several days.
My daughter STILL talk about making a dancing dragon at home!
This is really fun for Happy New Year dragon dances because the dragon moves (like a dragon puppet!).
To Make A Chinese Dragon Craft, You’ll Need:
- Recycled packing pillows (CRAFT TIP: You can also buy them at office supply stores.)
- Red acrylic paint
- Red tissue paper
- Streamers
- White construction paper
- Yellow construction paper
- Red construction paper
- Wide ribbon (optional, to make handles underneath)
- Markers or crayons
- Paint brush
- Glue stick or glue
- Hot glue gun and glue
- Scissors
GET THE PRINTABLE CRAFT INSTRUCTIONS HERE
Idea #3: Make Chinese Dumplings
This was a fun recipe to make with kids because not only did we learn how to make homemade potstickers (aka: dumplings), but we also got to learn about using chopsticks and practice using chopsticks.
This was a Lunar New Year recipe that we all had a lot of fun with! However, be aware, it takes practice to make fold the dumplings. (That’s why our potstickers look a little weird.) We have some recipe tips with the printable recipe card!
To Make Chinese Dumplings, You’ll Need:
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon chopped chives
- 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
- 1 pound ground pork
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 Tablespoons chives, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons sesame oil
- 1 Tablespoons fresh ginger, minced
- 36 Dumpling or wonton wrappers (round, if you can find them)
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 1 quart of water
GET THE FREE CHINESE DUMPLINGS PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD
Idea #4: Read Books On Chinese New Year And Lunar New Year Children’s Books
No matter how old my daughter gets, we still read children’s books for different holidays. And, Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year has some REALLY GREAT kids’ books, especially if you’re looking to learn more about Chinese New Year traditions and Lunar New year celebrations.
Fun Lunar New Year Books for Kids / Chinese New Year Children’s Books To Read This Year:
- Ruby’s Chinese New Year
- Hiss! Pop! Boom!
- A New Year’s Reunion: A Chinese Story (my daughter loved this book!)
- Chinese New Year Wishes: Chinese Spring and Lantern Festival Celebration (Fun Festivals)
- Lunar New Year (Celebrate the World, Book 4 in series)
- A New Year’s Reunion
- Playing with Lanterns
- The Great Race: Story of the Chinese Zodiac
- Yeh-Shen
- The 12 Days of Lunar New Year
- Holidays Around the World: Celebrate Chinese New Year: With Fireworks, Dragons, and Lanterns
GET THE FULL BOOK LIST OF CHINESE NEW YEAR BOOKS FOR KIDS
Idea #5: Make Homemade Chinese Fortune Cookies
We put this Chinese New Year activity for kids last on the list because Chinese fortune cookies aren’t really traditional Chinese food!
There’s some conflicting information about the history of fortune cookies (some say it came from a Chinese-American immigrant from California and others say it was from a Japanese-American immigrant), but it is definitely associated with Chinese food in the United States today.
So, your kids may have fun making homemade fortune cookies (with their own fortunes) to celebrate Chinese New Year or for your Lunar New Year party foods!
My daughter really loved making these, but it does take a minute to get your fortune cookie folded correctly!
LEARN HOW TO MAKE FORTUNE COOKIES
Happy Chinese New Year / Happy Lunar New Year!
We hope you enjoy these fun activities and Chinese New Year ideas and Lunar New Year activities for kids!
LOOKING FOR FUN COOKING PRINTABLES FOR KIDS?
