Chinese New Year Lanterns: Making Your Own!

Chinese New Year Lanterns make great decorations and this time of the year, you see them popping up everywhere around town, the temples, the stores, homes, parks...

Chinese New Year Lanterns decorate a courtyard

Chinese lanterns come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colors, although for Chinese New Year, the traditional red and gold balloon lantern is one of the most popular ones.

Here we show you how to make your own so you can decorate your home, your room, hang by entrances, place on tables, liven up the classroom!

There are some very simple steps and all you need is some paper and glue and a few other things you are likely to have at home to make this bright and cheery lantern and get in the holiday spirit!

Make a Chinese New Year Lantern

There are only a few easy steps to these beautiful Chinese New Year paper lanterns:

Materials needed:

One sheet red paper
Two to three sheets gold paper
Pencil and ruler
Regular Scissors
Scissors with fun shape (optional)
Glue
Tape
Stapler

Materials for Making Chinese New Year Lantern

Step 1:

Use the pencil and ruler to trace lines about 3/4" apart perpendicular and along the whole length of the red paper

Step 2:

Use the scissors to cut through the lines leaving approximately 1/2" at the top uncut
This will form the bars that will form the balloon of the lantern.

Step 3:

Use some tape to hold the bottom of the bars together

Step 4:

Using the fun-shape scissor, or the regular scissors if you don't have one, cut thin stripes of gold paper
Glue the trimmings to the lantern bars

Step 5:

Fold 1/2" at the top and bottom of the red paper
You can use the ruler and scissors to make a light crease so it folds easily

Step 6:

Take a gold sheet of paper
Apply glue to one of the sides

Step 7:

Roll the gold paper to form a tube, this will be the center of the lantern
Secure the ends with the glue

Step 8:

Roll the red paper over the gold tube
Match only one side of the red paper to one end of the gold tube and glue them together
You can secure it with a couple of staples just to make sure it won't come off, the other side stays loose

Step 9:

Match the other side leaving some of the gold tube visible and shaping the balloon of the lantern
Secure the remaining side with glue and a couple of staples if needed

Step 10:

Cut two stripes of gold paper 1/2" thick
Glue them to the top and bottom of the lantern (it covers all the tape, staples, etc.)

Step 11:

Cut any excess gold tube at the bottom if you will be placing the lantern on a table, or
Cut thin stripes at the bottom to form the fringe of the lantern if you will hang it

Step 12:

Make the handle with a strip of gold paper
Glue on both sides at the top
Ready!

You can try different variations and sizes:

You can cut one sheet of red paper in quarters and make up to four little ones, BUT remember not to use them in fours, four is a VERY BAD LUCK NUMBER, so either put them in pairs, or groups of three, or even better, make two sheets and get EIGHT LUCKY LANTERNS, eight is the lucky number for the Chinese as its pronounciation resembles the word for "wealth"!

Instead of the round balloon shape, you can try a smoother hurricane glass-like shape like this one: