Chinese Recipes to Celebrate Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year (or the Lunar New Year) is coming up in February and I’m excited to be taking part in the MKB Chinese New Year series with some other great bloggers from Multicultural Kid Bloggers.

I’ll be sharing some fun Chinese Foods to help you celebrate Chinese New Year. Food is always one of the most fun parts of a celebration!

Chinese New Year Recipes

Nian Gao (粘糕) – This is a famous sticky rice cake made for Chinese New Year. You can see this at ET Speaks from Home, and lots of other Chinese recipes and crafts too. You can also find a story book about this sticky rice cake over at Kid World Citizen

Matcha Shortbread Cookies (抹茶酥餅) from Utry.it

Chinese New Year Pineapple Tarts (凤梨酥/菠萝酥) from Pick Yin

Traditonal Chinese New Year Peanut Cookies from Baking = Love

Jiaozi / Chinese Dumplings – These can be made with any filling, but this recipe uses Shrimp and looks amazing

Spring Rolls can also be made with any filling. Personally we prefer to make chicken or vegetable. This recipe is for a mini version

Fortune Cookies would be lots of fun to make for Chinese New Year. I’ve seen lots of tutorials around to make paper or felt versions as a craft, but eating them would have to be our favourite! You can see a recipe and video tutorial here.

Chinese New Year Food and Traditions

Tray of Togetherness. Marie Pastiche shares the traditions of this tray of food, divided into 8 parts each with their own meaning.

Bi Cultural Mama also shares all about the traditions and significance of many of the foods eaten during Chinese New Year

Eileen from ET Speaks from Home shares pictures of all the Chinese New Year goodies from Singapore China town. This is not a recipe, but interesting to take a look.

To continue the Chinese food themed fun, there are some great ideas for Chinese Restaurant themed dramatic play at Pre-K pages, with printables and pretend Chinese food.

We are definitely planning to eat some yummy Chinese food for Chinese New Year. What a fun way to introduce the kids to festivals from around the world and learn to appreciate and respect other traditions, just as we like others to respect and appreciate ours. The variety of cultures and traditions, food and festivals all around the world is a beautiful thing!

We have also made a few kids crafts for Chinese New Year which you can check out here:

• How to Make Red Envelopes for Chinese New Year
• Chinese New Year Shaker
• Recycled TP Roll Chinese Lanterns for Chinese New Year
• Paper Plate Chinese Lantern Craft for Chinese New Year
• Chinese New Year Color By Number Pages (Free Printable)
• Chinese Zodiac Animal Coloring Pages
• Chinese Crafts for Kids – Chinese fans and more.
• Soft Paper Plate Sheep Craft for Year of the Sheep

To celebrate Chinese New Year, you can enter for these exciting Chinese New Year prize packs via the Rafflecopter below. Good luck! And Happy New Year! “Gung Hay Fat Choy!”

This post is part of the Chinese New Year series and giveaway on Multicultural Kid Blogs. Enter our giveaway to win one of these great prize packages, and don’t forget to link up your own posts about Chinese New Year on our main page!

Giveaway begins Jan. 21 and goes through midnight ET on March 5, 2015. Enter below for a chance to win! Remember you can make a comment on the blog post of a different co-host each day for an additional entry.

First Prize Package

From Tuttle Publishing, All About China: Take the whole family on a whirlwind tour of Chinese history and culture with this delightfully illustrated book that is packed with stories, activities and games. Travel from the stone age through the dynasties to the present day with songs and crafts for kids that will teach them about Chinese language and the Chinese way of life.

Also from Tuttle Publishing, Long-Long’s New Year, a beautifully illustrated picture book about a little Chinese boy named Long-Long, who accompanies his grandfather into the city to sell cabbages in order to buy food and decorations for the New Year. Selling cabbages is harder than Long-Long expects, and he encounters many adventures before he finds a way to help his grandfather, and earn New Year’s treats for his mother and little cousin.

From A Little Mandarin, a CD featuring a collection of Chinese children’s classics – songs loved by families in China for generations – given new life with a contemporary sound and voice. The 15 tracks fuse rock, pop, dance, ska, and hip hop influences with playful lyrics to make it a unique and fun learning companion for all ages. Featured on Putumayo Kids Presents World Sing-Along.

Second Prize Package

US shipping only

From Tuttle Publishing, Celebrating the Chinese New Year, in which Little Mei’s grandfather tells her the stories of Nian and the monster Xi for Chinese New Year.

Also from Tuttle Publishing, The Sheep Beauty, which brings to life the kindness and generosity of those born under the sign of the sheep in the Chinese zodiac.

Also from Tuttle Publishing, Chinese Zodiac Animals, a fun and informative way to learn about the ancient Chinese Zodiac, explaining the traits of each animal sign and what luck the future might hold for the person born under that sign.

From Tiny Tapping Toes, a monkey drum, plus a free pdf of a craft version. World Music children’s performer DARIA has spent the last two decades performing in the USA and around the world, creating music to inspire all the world’s children and allowing children to become a part of the celebration and the fun of exploring world cultures.