The Best Chinese New Year Traditions and Activities to Do with Your Kids

by | Blog, Chinese Printable

Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year) 新年/ 春節 is the most important traditional festival for the Chinese. This is also an essential festival for families and friends to get together to give blessings and fortune to each other.

In this blog post, I’m going to show you some best Chinese New Year traditions and activities that you can do with your kids, no matter where are you located. So we all can enjoy this awesome festival.

Our Chinese New Year in Hong Kong

During the Chinese New Year, I usually have a longer holiday (besides the summer break), new clothes to wear, fun days traveling with my family, and tons of good food to eat.  I would also receive red packets and candies when I went to visit family and friends.

Isn’t this like another Christmas for kids? 

However, when I married and had two kids living in the United States, I found that keeping a traditional Chinese New Year at home was difficult without any support from outside.

Also, my kids were so young that I was always wondering if it was worth having it. I thought maybe I should wait until they were older, so I just bought some Chinese dresses, put some chocolate gold coins in their red packets, and prepared a Chinese dinner on the Chinese New Year.

Honestly, I didn’t really enjoy it as much as when I was a child in Hong Kong, but I knew it was a good start for my kids to learn about Chinese culture. 

Fortunately, my husband was willing to move us all back to Hong Kong, so we are excited to have our 3rd Chinese New Year here.

Since I’m homeschooling my kids, I would love to share some traditions and activities that we have done in the past and we are planning to do in the next few weeks to celebrate Chinese New Year. 

NOTE: I strongly recommend for those who are not Chinese or have little to no prior experience with Chinese New Year resources and materials to pick and choose from the following activities.

You don’t need to do everything that the Chinese traditionally do during the New Year!

You can simplify these traditions to meet your needs as you plan your activities. Simple things like throwing a Chinese New Year party at home, or learning and experiencing the Chinese New Year for a few days will still be super fun but not overwhelming.

 

Chinese New Year Traditions that You can Try

  • Decorate your home
  • Buy and wear Chinese clothing
  • Use chopsticks to eat in a Chinese restaurant
  • Check which Zodiac animal you are
  • Attend Chinese New Year event if possible
  • Visit a Chinese temple
  • Give red packets to pass on fortune to others
  • Deep clean your house

 

Chinese New Year Activities You Can Easily Do

 

FREEBIES: Chinese New Year Banners

Making and decorating with Chinese New Year banners is one of the most common activities during the New Year. People buy them in the store, make their own, and even make them give to others.

The Chinese believe we can receive all kinds of blessings and fortune if we put these banners on the walls and doors of our home.

Since I personally love making Chinese New Year banners, I created 2 sets of Chinese New Year Crafts – 1 for free and a full version. You can try the free version first, and if you love them and want more banners to decorate, you can consider purchasing the full version.

I think it is much more fun to make the banners yourself, so the banners are all traceable (perfect for little kids and beginners), and they are very affordable. See how amazing they look. I’m sure they will bring the spirit of Chinese New Year into your home.

Chinese New Year Banners: Full Version 

Chinese New Year banners

4 different language versions

(All the banners have an English translation)

 

  • Traditional Chinese
  • Simplified Chinese
  • Traditional Chinese with Pinyin
  • Simplified Chinese with Pinyin.

 

It also includes

 

  • over 20 pages of  traceable vertical and square banners
  • English translations
  • English instructions

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You simply need to print them off, and then your kids/students can trace the Chinese characters on the banners with black markers, Q-tips & black paint, glitter, or even a Chinese paintbrush and ink. 

After all the Chinese characters are filled, the banners can be cut out and hung on the walls and doors. 

* We usually put TWO banners side by side, because it is not really fortunate if you only hang a  single banner on its own. Also, we love to match the meaning of the banners and put them in an auspicious place.

For example

Chinese people love putting “出入平安” (Safe Travel) on the front door to have safe travel, and “財源廣進” in the living room or front door so they can get rich, and “學業進步” on the wall by the kid’s desk, so their kids will have better grades.

You are free to use your creativity to place the right banners for your family in your home. 

Want to try the FREE version? Fill out the form below and sign up!



If you have already subscribed to my email list, you can find this freebie in the Chinese Resource Library.

Other Styles of Chinese New Year Banners that You May Also Like

All about Chinese New Year

You Are Not Doing it Alone

Join my Facebook support group to meet and get connections with parents and educators with the same goals.

After being a member, you can attend all the special LIVE training, events, and activities together.

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身为职业妈妈的我,常常牺牲睡眠来自作教材。版主全方位学习的新年教材真让我省下不少宝贵的时间找资料。四岁的女儿对中文学习有点抗拒。我们善用版主提供的迷你故事书和生字卡来增强她对语文的认识。版主的中文单词棋盘游戏更让女儿投入学习, 因为她想赢嘛!版主的教材可让小孩边玩边学, 太棒了。

Grace

两个小孩的职业妈妈

This is the second 5-Day Challenge that we have done with Fortune Cookie Mom. Both have been very beneficial to our family. I am a homeschool mom of three little kids. We are not Chinese and do not speak any Chinese. With the help of Fortune Cookie Mom, we are slowly learning! The challenges have given me fun activities to do at home with the kids. Each one has reignited my kid's interest in learning. It has been a fun experience for everybody!

Nicolette

Homeschooling Mom of Three

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