This Chinese New Year paper lantern kid craft is the perfect way to celebrate as a family! Pair this fun activity with some delicious dumplings!
This post is sponsored by Ling Ling Asian Kitchen Potstickers. All opinions are my own, as well as the craft idea for this Chinese New Year Paper Lantern Kid Craft.
It’s finally February (January isn’t my fav), and now I get to celebrate TWO fun holidays with my kiddos. Of course there is Valentine’s Day, but don’t forget about Chinese New Year celebrations! I was so excited this week when Ling Ling® Asian Kitchen asked me to trying their chicken and vegetable potstickers and to use them in a Chinese New Year celebration with my kiddos. They are SO good. Seriously. More on that later.
You may think it odd that I’m so excited about Chinese New Year, but I bet you didn’t realize that I lived in China for five months in college. True story! I went to China as a volunteer English teacher with International Language Programs. In fact, we arrived in China during February, so we were welcomed at the school with all sorts of Chinese New Year festivities. Such happy memories. I had SO much fun living in China!! I spent most of my time in far north western China, in Urumqi City, XinJiang Province, and I also traveled around with my friends and than my father at the end of my time there. I was immersed in the culture and having all kinds of adventures traveling all over on sleeper trains, camping out in $3 a night hostels, and doing foolish illegal things like sneaking up to sleep on The Great Wall of China. Aaahhh, to be 19 again…
My son and I had a fantastic time looking through my big fat scrapbook that I made of my days in China back in my scrapbooking stage of life. It is so colorful and busy and full of life and joy, which is a perfect representation of my time in China.
Both kids LOVED digging out some of my souvenirs from the crawl space. (We love living with my dad, and we are blessed to have the option and opportunity, but it is very annoying to have so many of your things in boxes for years and years. Ah, well.) Sadly, I couldn’t find my handpainted China dish set in our insane stack of boxes – must be at the bottom somewhere – but I did find lots of other fun goodies, including the stamp with my “Chinese name” on it. (My students gave me a Chinese name and I gave them English ones.) My big boy had a great time stamping with it.
I asked the kids if they wanted to have a Chinese New Year celebration with me, and in addition to requesting permission to play with my souvenirs they wanted to make a Chinese New Year paper lantern kid craft. We all know I’m always down for a fun kid craft, so I grabbed supplies for them and we crafted while my hubby prepped the Ling Ling® Asian Kitchen Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers.
Let me show you how to make this paper lantern kid craft. All you need is red and yellow construction paper, scissors, a stapler, and some glue. It comes together in minutes!
Start by folding a piece of red construction paper in half “hot dog style” and cut strips THAT DO NOT GO ALL THE WAY THROUGH.
Cut thin yellow strips and glue them on the top and bottom of the paper (the uncut portion).
Now wrap your paper in a circle and staple it together like a lantern. Staple a red strip across the top as a handle.
To make the lantern cuts stick out more and look as if they have light inside we took a wide strip of yellow paper, rolled it up, slid it inside, and stapled that to the top and bottom. The shorter the inside yellow roll is the more the lantern pieces will stick out.
All done! Display your paper lantern kid craft with pride as part of your Chinese New Year tablescape and festivities!
I love the way that little lady adores her brother. Not related to the post, just an observation. 🙂
Now let’s talk Ling Ling® Asian Kitchen Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers. When I took up a big bag of them (found in the freezer section) to the register my cashier said, “Oh, we LOVE these! My husband and I always keep them on hand.” Good sign, right?!
They cooked up in about 10 minutes (follow the directions precisely for optimal crispness – we made this mistake and have stuck to the directions since then) and we enjoyed them along with a lovely Asian-inspired salad. It was a GREAT meal. SO easy! The whole evening was so fun and the potstickers really added to the feel of the evening. It was so fun to take a “taste adventure” for the night! Oh, and I have had them for lunch the past three days. That’s four days in a row. I’m a serious fan. Huge bag, great deal! Count me in!
I hope this post inspires you to grab your own bag of Ling Ling® Asian Kitchen Chicken and Vegetable Potstickers and some construction paper for a fun Chinese New Year themed evening of fun with your family!
Happy Chinese New Year!
Find more Asian inspired idea’s on the Ling Ling® Asian Kitchen Facebook and Pinterest pages!