How to Celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Snake

By Grandma Sandy | January 22, 2025 |

If you are a descendant of people who already enjoy Lunar New Year traditions, this post is not for you. If this isn’t your heritage holiday but you’d like to join the 2 billion people who celebrate, read on.

The Chinese New Year, or the Lunar New Year, begins January 29, and ends with the Lantern Festival on February 12. Here are some ways you can customize your own New Year celebration.

Child makes a paper snake for the Chinese Year of the Snake. — **It’s the Year of the Snake. N makes a snake from cardstock and a cardboard roll.**

A Grandkids’ Chinese New Year Tea Party

Why not observe the New Year with a tea party? An easy dish to feature is wonton cups.

Admittedly, there’s nothing Chinese about this recipe except the wonton wrappers, but it’s super-easy to make. And you can supplement more authentically with frozen dim sum from Asian supermarkets, as well as from stores like Costco and Walmart.

The only thing Chinese about this dish is the wonton wrappers. But these wonton cups make a great addition to a child's tea party to celebrate the Chinese New Year. — **Wonton cups are filled with hummus.** **Give kids lucky money in red envelopes.**

What is dim sum? This Chinese culinary term refers to various kinds of dumplings, snack dishes, and other tasty nibbles, served with tea at brunch or lunch.

Ideally, you would introduce the grandkids to authentic Chinese food by taking them to a dim sum restaurant if there is one where you live. Typically, you order from waitstaff pushing carts laden with various kinds of delectable morsels, by simply pointing to which small plates you want as the carts go by.

Making Wonton Cups

These wonton cups require few ingredients and only a few minutes.

Baked wonton cups cool on a rack. — **Wonton cups cool on a wire rack.**

Ingredients

Nonstick cooking spray
12 wonton wrappers
Filling of your choice (see below)

Method

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray a mini muffin tin with nonstick cooking spray. Take 1 wonton wrapper and bring the four corners together. Holding by the four corners in one hand, drop the wonton wrapper into a muffin cup.

To make wonton cups, hold four corners of a wonton wrapper and drop it into a mini muffin tin, as the bottom middle muffin cup illustrates. — **The bottom middle shows the wonton wrapper dropped by four corners, before it is spread out.**

Use your fingers to gently press the center of the wonton wrapper into the muffin cup to form a cup shape. Pleat the excess and spread out the corners of the wonton wrapper like flower petals. Make sure all the corners are facing outward; otherwise they may collapse into the cup when baked.

Bake until wonton cups are light brown and crisp, about 10 to 12 minutes. Watch carefully from about 8 minutes to ensure the wrappers don’t burn. Remove cups from the muffin tin and cool on a wire rack. If tops are crisp but the bottoms are less so, turn the wonton cups upside down on a baking sheet and bake for a few minutes more.

These super-simple Chinese spare ribs take minutes to prep.

Wonton cups can be made ahead and stored airtight for a few days. However, the cups need to be baked perfectly dry. If there is any moisture left in the wonton wrapper, the moisture will soften the cups and make them chewy.

Makes 12 wonton cups

Filling Choices:

Fill with hummus; bean dip; or sandwich fillings such as chicken, tuna, or egg salad.

Activities to Celebrate the Chinese New Year

San Francisco Chinatown in 2019. — **San Francisco Chinatown 2019**

Host a Chinese New Year celebratory dinner for your family at a Chinese restaurant. Before you go, learn which foods are lucky to guide your menu selections.
Have the grandkids make Chinese New Year crafts, such as an easy snake from a sheet of cardstock and a toilet paper roll.

These DIY Chinese New Year snakes are easy to make with a toilet roll and cardstock. — **A simple Chinese New Year craft to celebrate the Year of the Snake.**

Take the grandkids to a Chinese New Year festival. Here are some U.S. cities that celebrate, including San Francisco, New York, Spokane, and Houston.
Learn more about the Lunar New Year and how it is celebrated throughout Asia.
Show the grandkids a few kid-oriented videos to educate them about the Chinese New Year, such as All About Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year for Kids.
Give kids trainer chopsticks so they can practice finger dexterity. You can make a game out of picking up objects (food or otherwise) with a prize for the child who picks up the most items.
Give the grandkids lucky money in red envelopes.
Make Chinese takeout cupcakes from What’s New, Cupcake? by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. The lo mein noodles are frosting threads extruded from a zip-top bag. The broccoli and pork slivers are fruit chews. The fried rice is puffed rice cereal; the peas are jelly beans.

Chinese takeout containers hold cupcakes created to look like low mein noodles and fried rice, but made with frosting and candy. — **DIY cupcakes disguised as Chinese takeout.**

What Kids Learn from New Year Activities

Learning about other peoples, cultures, and customs helps to broaden and enrich the horizons of kids. You could take this exploration further by planning an imaginary trip to China as the grandkids and I did when we “traveled” to Sweden.

And, trying foods of other cultures, such as going to a dim sum restaurant, encourages further culinary exploration and helps kids to develop a more sophisticated palate. Plus, learning to eat with chopsticks will increase the grandkids’ enjoyment of and affinity for Asian foods.

Next Week: Valentine’s Day

We’ll start a Valentine’s Day project for kids and plan a family Valentine’s Day celebration.

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