Rabbit Craft Ideas for Chinese New Year
Lunar New Year is once again heading our way. And we are looking at the Year of the Rabbit in 2023. Let’s celebrate Chinese New Year and Lunar New Year with these lovely rabbit activities and crafts!
Chinese New Year is on Saturday 22nd January 2023 this and we will be celebrating all things Year of the Rabbit Crafts.
Now, as you can imagine, we DO have a fair share of Rabbit Craft Ideas here on Red Ted Art already. Mainly thanks to Easter Bunny crafting.. however, I have picked out and in many cases recreated the BEST of these to create a unique set of Year of the Rabbit Activities.
Especially, keeping in mind some key characteristics that are relevant to Year of the Rabbit Crafts. For example, lucky cothers include – pink, red, purple and blue! Avoid dark browns, dark yellow and (oh no) white!!! Yep, that is correct, do not make any of our rabbit crafts as WHITE rabbit crafts for Chinese New Year. As they will be deemed unlucky!
Check out China Highlights for this list of lucky and and unlucky elements for Year of the Rabbit individuals! Use this as a giude as to what colours to make your origami rabbits in!
Let’s celebrate the new Chinese year and learn a little more about the Year of the Rabbit. The fun activities shared today are fantastic for both at home, in preschool or in the classroom!
Year of the Rabbit Dates
Taking a look at the Chinese calendar, here are some detailed history Year of the Rabbit Dates!
- 19th February 1939 – 7th February 1940
- 6th February 1951 – 26th January 1952
- 25th January 1963 – 12th February 1964
- 11th February 1975 – 30rd January 1976
- 29th January 1987 – 16th February 1988
- 16th February 1999 – 4th February 2000
- 3rd February 2011 – 22nd January 2012
Key upcoming dates for the year of the rabbit are – 2023 – 2035! So the…
Next Year of the Rabbit
… is in 2023. Starting on the 22nd January 2023 and lasts right through to 9th February 2024. The upcoming year of the rabbit is the year of the water rabbit! We last had the Year of the Rabbit in 2011 was the Gold Rabbit.
The year of the rabbit rotates through:
- Gold rabbit
- Water rabbit
- Wood rabbit
- Fire rabbit
- Earth rabbit
Apparently my birth year rabbit is the Wood Rabbit! I will let you work out what year I was born! Teehee!
Rabbit Characteristics
Rabbit people tend to be outgoing and kind! They are often consider having good luck, but that is also often as a result of being hard working. They have a tendency to be chatty too and like being around people.
Our Year of the Rabbit Crafts
Let’s begin with our favourite Rabbit Craft Ideas for Lunar New Year. Stock up on some craft basics, glue, scissors, with lots of lovely red paper, pinks, purples and blue paper work really well for the Year of the Rabbit too. And let’s explore Chinese culture with some adorable rabbit DIYs.
Rabbit Bookmark Corners (change the colours)
Rabbit Bookmark Corners – we love corner bookmarks and especially corner bookmarks that explore the Chinese Zodiac! We have a set of wonderful animal bookmarks already.. and here of course is the Year of the Rabbit version! Two cute designs to choose from! Just remember to not make your rabbit bookmarks in white (sorry! I know, I remade these especially for you, but I only learnt afterwards, that white was an unlucky colour – at least they have pink details and are on a red card.. right?)
Of course they double up as cute Easter Bunny Bookmarks too
Rabbit Face Origami – a great Year of the Rabbit Activity
Few, before I moved on to our classic Rabbit Face Origami, I got the memo about lucky colours. So here we have a set of origami bunny faces. You can combine them with some (free) printable Chinese New Year Greeting and turn them into these great greeting cards and collages. A lovely way to wish someone a Happy Lunar New Year!
Just another version of the same card. You can check out this simple Pop Up mechanism, to turn your Origami Rabbit into a Pop Up Rabbit Card.
Of course you can make cute Easter Bunny Cards too! They aren’t just for the Year of the Rabbit!
Pop Up Rabbit Card for Lunar New Year Crafts
As you may well know, we ADORE pop up cards for all occasions. Especially when they are as cute and fun Rabbit Pop Up Card to make as this pop up bunny card – complete with Chinese Lanterns and Happy New Year printables in Chinese! (NOTE: this craft is running on auto play too!).
And yes.. we do have a Pop Up Bunny Easter Card version too!
Chinese New Year STEAM – Printable Rabbit Puppet
Make a lovely Paper Rabbit Puppet – as you know, we ADORE articulated paper puppets. They make a wonderful STEAM project whatever the season. So I decided to update our Easter Bunny Puppet and add some Chinese New Year features to it to truly celebrate the Year of the Rabbit! This rabbit has a Lucky Lily, some Chinese Paper Lanterns and a choice of “Rabbit symbol” or “plain” tummy rabbits!
Available as Easter Bunny Puppet and accessories too!
Whilston the topic of puppets, don’t miss out on our dragon puppet printable always a popular Chinese New Year craft – the concertina dragon printable!
Simple Rabbit Headband for Preschoolers
Easy Rabbit Headband to print, cut, glue and wear! This is a nice and easy little craft for the little kiddos amongst us. A great way to practice those cutting skills and celebrate Chinese New year!
Simple Rabbit Masks
Here is a super simple rabbit masks the kids and I made many many moons ago. You can use our free Superhero mask templates that comes in two sizes. All you need to do is add some simple rabbit ears and decorations!
Paper plate rabbit for preschoolers to make for Lunar New Year
This paper plate bunny purse would be fantastic made in red too, don’t you think? Another great rabbit craft for preschoolers!
A few more Rabbit DIYs from the blog
A few more Rabbit Crafts, that I didn’t have time to adapt for you, but that I still thought you may like to see.. and maybe have a go at in the appropriate lucky colours!
Want to step up your origami skills? If you have mastered the simple origami rabbit face, why not give this origami rabbit for intermediates a go too. As you can see, they are still part of my Easter Crafts.. but make them in appropriate lucky colours and you have a great rabbit craft for the new year too!
Similarly, if you are having a Chinese New Year feast, why not give these Napkin Rabbits a go? Just remember to avoid unlucky things – ie white and go for some lucky pinks, red, blues and purples!
Toilet roll crafting is always fun and a great classroom activity as it is so cheap and simple. Check out these rediciulously cute Toilet Paper Roll Rabbits!
Easy macrame rabbits make for a cute backpack charm or keychain to make and gift!
One more cute paper rabbit craft for year of the rabbit:
One more cutie from Alpha Mom who has this simple yet oh so cute 3d Paper Rabbit printable. The perfect Year of the Rabbit activity to add to your collection.
I hope you will agree that these are great activities for kids of all ages. From toddlers and preschoolers, right up to older kiddos and maybe even teenagers (actually, I LOVED making pop up cards as a teen!). Anything to release that creativity and have much fun!
Check out the rest of our Chinese Zodiac Animal Activities for Chinese New Year:
Check out our extensive list of Chinese New Year resources here:
This list includes lots of fun activities, including making paper fans, festival lanterns, Chinese dragon crafts, red envelopes and lots more! Lots of craft fun to be had!
