Chinese New Year Lanterns

Lanterns play an important part in the Chinese New Year. 

On the 15th day, the last day, of the New Year celebration is the Lantern Festival. 

Thousands of lanterns are hung around the city or town and families parade the streets with their own stick lanterns. 

This year Chinese New Year was celebrated on February 1st, Year of the Tiger.

What to do:

Using a piece of yellow paper, I rolled the short sides of the paper into a cylinder so that the ends overlap by a 1/2 inch. Tape together and set it aside.

Take a piece of red paper and fold it length-wise (hot dog way). On the folded edge, cut slits equal in length and size, but do not cut all the way to the open end. Be sure to leave at least a 1/4 inch at the end of each cut. These first two steps I prepared ahead of time for the younger kids. I left sheets of paper out for the older kids who have no problem using scissors, so they could accomplish the above steps on their own.

Unfold your red sheet of paper and decorate. The kids decorated their lanterns with markers and later with glitter.

Using your rolled yellow sheet of paper, wrap the red, opened piece of paper around the yellow. Secure by taping the red ends together and by also taping the red paper to the yellow paper.

If you’d like, decorate your lantern with glue and glitter at this time. Let dry.

To make a handle cut out two one strip of paper. (This is another step I did ahead of time for the younger kids)

Fasten both ends of the strip to the inside of the lantern using tape.