My kids have been busy making some decorations for Chinese New Year.  A couple of years ago Aurora made an amazing pineapple lantern made from 45 红包 hóngbāo (red packets)! Measurement, 3D tessellation, technology, problem solving when things didn’t go right, focus and determination of fiddly detail, a valuable creative activity that looks awesome!

Fiddly art work has never been an agenda item for Lucas, until now….he all of a sudden decided that he would like to give making a lantern out of 红包 this year.  He chose a pretty tricky one…using 66 red envelopes! But patience and commitment pulled it off….

Aurora decided to use the red envelopes to make a firecracker hanging decoration this time.

红包, (hóngbāo) are red envelopes, (and when not being used to make lanterns 😉), are usually given to children for Chinese New Year with money inside!

The Chinese New Year Lantern Festival is traditionally held on the 15th day of the New Year Celebrations, marking the end of the festival, in line with the full moon.  This year the Lantern Festival Day of the Chinese New Year is Friday 2nd March 2018.  So still plenty of time to make one…even a tricky one!  The video below shows the tutorial for the one that Lucas made.  The lady’s channel though has HEAPS of different kinds of lanterns to make, from easy to challenging 🙂  You can buy the red envelopes from China Town shops or some newsagents.