Getting Ready for Chinese New Year

As we put away the last of the Christmas decorations, I start pulling out the Chinese New Year goodies. Chinese New Year falls on the 26th of January this year. It's a little slow going with the decorations. My big New Year lanterns have rips in them, so I will have to make new ones. I am still looking for a chinese couplet that won't look gaudy.

The kids had a great time making some paper lantern crafts:


My older child made cut paper lanterns:


The younger one had fun cutting and pasting gold (wrapping foil) paper onto red paper.




For decorations, I did put out the fake flowers. Wish we could get fresh ones, but the fake ones will suffice. (The chinese usually do not put out dried flowers - very bad, I've been told)
Flowers to symbolize rebirth:



More red lanterns... red for luck, always with the red.

Look at how bright the simple paper lanterns look against the stark winter light...

Always with lots of oranges, mandarins or clementines for happiness and prosperity.


That's the start. I will keep you updated with new year crafts and decorations as we near the big date!