[For Seniors] Let’s Make New Year Decorations by Hand! A Collection of Easy Ideas Using Everyday Materials
How about a craft activity where you hand-make decorations to brighten up the New Year? We’ll share ideas for easy-to-try ornaments using familiar materials—auspicious motifs like senryō (coralberry), the pine-bamboo-plum trio, Mount Fuji, and sea bream.
You can crumple lots of tissue paper, accordion-fold origami, or press clay onto cardboard—great fine-motor exercises, too.
If everyone divides up the tasks and works together, the conversation will flow and smiles will abound.
Once the decorations are finished and hung on the wall, they’ll fill the space with a festive New Year’s atmosphere.
Enjoy a fun crafting time while sending your wishes into the coming year!
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[For Seniors] Let’s Make New Year’s Decorations by Hand! A Collection of Easy Ideas Using Everyday Materials (91–100)
First calligraphy Daruma
Why not try making a “first-drawing daruma” to bring good luck at the start of the year? The process is simple—just paint a daruma with a brush—so anyone can easily give it a try.
It’s also a great New Year’s–themed activity.
The key is to use your brush to create a daruma full of personality.
Paste your daruma onto your favorite backing paper and decorate around it with origami for a vibrant finish.
Enjoy making a first-drawing daruma that’s perfect for welcoming the new year!
New Year’s decorations with camellias
This New Year’s decoration features camellias, a quintessential flower that brightens up winter! With simple steps like cutting and gluing paper, it’s perfect for a January craft activity at a day-service center.
The key is to round the camellia petals using chopsticks or another stick-shaped tool.
For the flower’s center, cut construction paper into a long, narrow strip, snip fringe along one side, curl it with chopsticks, and wrap it around a plastic bottle cap.
It looks striking on its own as a decoration, but you can also customize it in many ways—such as adding a shimenawa or mizuhiki—so give it a try!
Ema plaques you can enjoy with cardboard patterns
Let’s use the distinctive hollow structure along the edges of corrugated cardboard to decorate ema plaques like stamps.
Roll the cardboard into tubes or fold it into triangles—shape it so the edges are exposed—then ink those edges and press them onto the ema base.
Because the material is soft, you can’t get perfectly precise straight or curved lines, but that imperfection adds warmth to the design.
It’s also worth noting that you can create originality through color combinations, such as which color you use for the base and which colors you use for the stamping.
lion dance
@user346911418193 Hello everyone! This is Day Service Sukoyaka. This time, we’re sharing scenes of making a shishimai (lion dance) for the New Year. The shishimai is believed to ward off evil spirits and drive away epidemics. If you’d like, please try making one yourself!A circle of smiles#Shishimai#ElderlyDayServiceRehabilitationDaycareDaily events at the day serviceDay-service recreationJam-packedShishimai (lion dance)Translation#ZuboraCardboardEasily with what's availableOrigamiNew Year#🎍Good-luck charmNew Year’s Event#NewYearHandmadeEpidemic be goneBlessingTranslationI tried making itEvent Introduction#ElderlyRecreationPlease follow me#Day Service SukoyakaUsa Citynursery school#Kindergartenarrangement#Copy this
New Year's Day – Tanpopo Children's Choir
Mr.
Kenji Tamura, whose lion dance performances brought smiles across Japan.
It’s a bit sad that, after moving to the United States to pursue a business career, we no longer see him on our TV screens at home.
How about making a New Year’s lion dance head out of cardboard? All you need is a red-painted box and some construction paper.
If you attach a big mouth and shaggy hair by imitation, it’s almost done.
Why not go for an impressively large size that will amaze everyone? If a group of craft enthusiasts gets together, I think it could be finished in a day.
Be sure to use gold accents for decoration!
Dragon wall decoration
This is a simple and charming idea for a dragon wall decoration that involves nothing more than cutting construction paper in a spiral.
Dragons are imaginary creatures known for their long bodies.
Here, that long body is represented by cutting the paper in a circular, spiral pattern with scissors.
You can also cut lunchbox grass dividers (baran) and stick them onto the body to create a scale-like pattern.
It works as a wall decoration as is, or you can add a string to turn it into a hanging ornament.
Why not give it a try?
A displayable, playable origami spinning top
A spinning top often played with during the New Year—how about making one out of origami? Since you fold it using multiple sheets of origami paper, it ends up looking colorful and cute, which is part of the charm.
Plus, the top you make isn’t just for decorating on the wall—you can actually spin it and play with it.
If you spin tops with friends or family, it’ll definitely liven things up.
Try folding them together and have fun.
By the way, it’s said that spinning tops during the New Year helps ward off evil spirits.
It also carries the meaning of bringing good luck.
Senryō made with tissue paper
Senryō and manryō are well-known as lucky plants, but in fact, Ardisia japonica is called “ten-ryō,” Chinaberry is “hundred-ryō,” and astonishingly, Skimmia japonica is even called “oku-ryō” (a hundred million ryō).
It’s curious, isn’t it, since they all have similar-looking red berries.
It also sounds fun to make a senryō decoration by rolling up lots of red tissue paper.
Since you’ll need to make many berries, I recommend doing it when you have a large group gathered.
Dividing up roles—leaves, stems, and so on—might make the work more efficient.
But if it’s senryō, everyone will probably want to make the berries!