About Lunar New Year

Legend says that a beast called the Nian lives under the sea and every year he comes out to feast on people. In order to scare the Nian away, the people decorate their houses with red banners, wear red clothing, and set off firecrackers and fireworks for the beast does not like the color red or loud noises.

Lunar New Year usually falls sometime in January or February, depending on when the new moon appears. It lasts fifteen days and ends on the Lantern Festival, which celebrates the first full moon of the new lunar year. Despite popular belief, many countries, not just China, celebrate the Lunar New Year.

In an effort to connect with my culture and to share it with my daughter, I have turned to crafts. Here are some fun Lunar New Year crafts I found online for free that would be great for preschoolers and kindergartners.

Free Lunar New Year Crafts

1. Chinese New Year Zodiac Coloring Lanterns from Tot Schooling

My daughter had a lot of fun coloring the lanterns. We did tiger lanterns as 2022 was the year of the tiger. This is a great activity for kids to practice using scissors as well.

2. Chinese Zodiac - Coloring Sheet from Joyce Wan

A little outdated as it only goes up to 2019, so you'll have to add recent years, but it's a great coloring sheet of the zodiac featuring the animals, their Chinese characters, and a little blurb under what each animal represents. It's a fun way for your child to learn more about the Chinese zodiac!

3. Printable Chinese Zodiac Coloring Pages from Fun Crafts Kids

For kids who love to color, these simple zodiac animal coloring pages are adorable!

4. Paper Lanterns

Lunar New Year traditionally focuses on red as that is the color that scares away the Nian, but The Printables Fairy has a really easy-to-use printable template, which we printed on red paper to make our red lanterns.

besea.n also has a Lunar New Year activity pack with a lantern template.

For mini lanters, check out The Craft Train's template.

5. Printable Chinese Dragon Mask Template from itsy bitsy fun

Lunar New Year is not complete without a dragon! Your child can color their own dragon mask with this template from itsy bitsy fun and pretend to be a dragon.

6. Lunar New Year Activity Sheets from Food Guessing

Looking for some non-coloring options? Food guessing has some fun free printable mazes and even Lunar New Year-themed bingo cards for kids!

7. Zodiac Animal Memory Game from Little Owl's Resources

Little Owl's Resources has a lot of fun free Lunar New Year printables, but our favorite is the memory game! (Our printer has ink issues making some cards more identifiable, but my five-year-old still found it challenging.)

8. Chinese Dragon Puppet Craft from Made With Happy

This is a fun, easy craft for kids! The original post uses tape, but glue stick works too for attaching the streamers and sticks.

9. Fire Breathing Dragon Craft from One Little Project

The original poster mentions using a hot glue gun to attach the pom poms, but we found Elmer's glue worked just as well. It just requires more drying time, so it took us two days to make it, but my daughter loves it. We made our own eyes out of paper and streamers or crepe paper works too if you don't have tissue paper.