Back in 2002 on February 12, to be exact, I had the opportunity to be part of Chinese New Year in a way that I don’t think I will ever experience again. I was in Hong Kong!! Cool huh? It was pretty amazing to be part of all the festivities there. My favorite thing had to be the dragons. There was a parade that went right down the middle of all the enormous buildings and the dragons were incredible to watch.
This one was my favorite.
I decided I want to make a dragon with my girls. I found a great one on Crayola. So cute and so easy!
This year is the year of the Tiger. As you know or you should know, I’m working on going green for my crafts so I was excited to come across this cute craft at the Activity Village. I did my tiger a little different so I will give you the list of supplies I used.
Supplies:
- toilet paper roll
- styrofoam ball
- wiggly eyes
- black button
- black ribbon
- 2 black and 2 orange pipe cleaners
- orange paint
- black sharpie
- orange foam sheet
- hot glue gun
I followed the instructions the Activity Village gave except I used the black sharpie instead of black paint. I also used the pipe cleaners for legs instead of corks. I twisted the pipe cleaners together like you do the tail, but then I folded it over and twisted them together again to make them stronger. I then bent each end a little to give our little tiger feet and also make it easier to glue to the toilet paper roll. She, our tiger is a girl, my daughter decided, turned out super cute!
Mandarin Oranges are also a big thing because they are a symbol of wealth and good fortune.
To the Chinese a Mandarin Orange tree is like a Christmas tree in a sense. They are everywhere you look, and are so pretty. This is a picture I took while there.
I was hoping to come up with some way to make a Mandarin Orange tree….I resorted to a can of Mandarin Oranges. I explained to my daughter about the significance of them, gave her a large foam sheet and a cup of mandarin oranges to “create.” She made a couple things…
The first being a crab, a caterpillar, and then pictured is a rainbow. (It was the only one I could make sense of. The others were very cute, but required an imagination!)
Have fun with Chinese New Year and take the opportunity to teach your little ones about another culture and their traditions. Here are some other fun ideas:
Happy Chinese New Year!!
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
She is so cute{the tiger} does she have a name yet?
I still can’t believe you were in Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year….way cool!
I just heard of another good idea of turning a Chinese lantern into a a pinata, that would be fun.
No name yet, it usually takes her a couple days of playing with her {the tiger} before her toys get names. I’ll let you know! Love the pinata/Chinese lantern idea…perfect for where I live right now!
I love that you focused on Chinese New Year (although it bugs me that it is shared with Valentine’s Day this year because then I have to think of a way to combine the two instead of enjoying two separate holidays – I really just want more ways to play! :) My brother served a mission in Taiwan and our family usually does something for Chinese New Year because of all the cool things he shared with us . I am certainly going to try some of the fun things you listed. Thanks, Aubrey!
I forgot to mention that our apartment in New York City (when we lived there ) was near to the Queens version of Chinatown. A lot of my friends ate a lot of noodles for Chinese New Year and adults gave money to children. Maybe I can incorporate that into my Valentine dinner. Hmmmm…
Which part of Taiwan did your brother serve? I was in Taiwan for 7 months and absolutely loved it! I agree on the Valentines Day and Chinese New Year being on the same day. I also love a reason to party! At least the color red is kinda dominant between both of them! :-) Love the red envelopes but we didn’t have much to do with them. Valentine, red envelope, money…this could be good!
He served in Taipei. My parents and I went to pick him up and spent a week there and a week in Hong Kong. It was absolutely amazing! My memory is fogged up about a lot of it because we had major jet lag! Good thing we took lots of pictures. I certainly have an appreciation for visiting other countries and cultures…and jet lag!
Great idea Aubery. I love the dragon too. You are such a fun mom!
Thanks Suzanne! We had fun!
Cute Tiger! I was saving up our TP rolls for green bowling, but I may have to sacrifice one for this cute tiger. Thanks for the ideas.
It’s definitely worth sacrificing one of those tp rolls for! Then maybe Kaylee’s tiger could have a little buddy! :-)
I love and appreciate this post! I lived in Asia as a young child and now as a parent it is important to me to instill in my child (another on the way!) the beauty of diversity in our world. We go up to Vancouver BC every year to celebrate Chinese New Years with friends, it was a sad day when I was too old to get a red envelope!
Thanks and keep up the good work!
Piper
Thank you Piper! I totally agree, it is so important to teach our children diversity. That is so neat that lived in Asia when you were younger. I lived in Taiwan for 7 months and just love the Asian culture and the people! Good luck with that baby on the way!