[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)
Extra-large plum blossom made with tissue paper
Because plum blossoms bloom before any other flower, they are considered lucky charms that symbolize success and good fortune.
Let’s make a large plum blossom out of tissue paper to invite good luck! Large rectangular tissue paper is recommended.
First, accordion-fold yellow tissue paper, add small cuts, and spread it out to create the stamens.
For the petals, stack two sheets of red tissue paper, accordion-fold them six times, fold in half, then round the edge opposite the fold.
Finally, open up the tissue paper and combine it with the stamens to complete the flower! If you want to make a bud, after making the flower, simply curl the petals inward toward the center to form a bud shape.
Bamboo made with tissue paper
Ohana-gami is a thin and soft tissue-like paper.
Used gently, it creates a translucent effect; when you crumple it tightly, you can form areas of deeper color.
It’s truly a paper full of possibilities.
Why not try making a bamboo decoration with ohana-gami? For the leaves, layer them to suggest three leaflets and give them a plump, rounded look.
For the stalk, arrange the segments to evoke bamboo nodes and enhance the bamboo-like feel.
Combine it with plum blossoms and pine to create the celebratory motif of “shochikubai” (pine, bamboo, and plum).
If several people share the work, you can probably finish it in about an hour.
[For Seniors] Let’s Make New Year Decorations by Hand! A Collection of Easy Ideas Using Everyday Materials (101–110)
Various Daruma decorations
Why not try making New Year decorations featuring the lucky Daruma motif? It’s easy to get started with familiar materials like origami and construction paper, making it a great option for day-service recreation activities as well! You can paint the Daruma’s face with a brush like a first-calligraphy exercise, create pieces inspired by the traditional Daruma-otoshi game, or make a three-dimensional Daruma with just a few simple cuts—there are countless ways to enjoy Daruma-themed New Year decorations depending on your creativity.
Use them as wall hangings or tabletop ornaments to brighten up your space and welcome the New Year in style.
Mini kadomatsu
Let’s make a cute, mini-sized kadomatsu using a mug.
Believe it or not, you can craft a New Year’s kadomatsu with just a mug.
Materials can include items from 100-yen shops and things like pine cones collected at the park.
You can also find red-and-white artificial flowers at 100-yen shops.
Choose motifs like traditional New Year’s nandina (nanten), bamboo, or plum blossoms, and you’ll create a decoration perfect for the season.
It’s easy and fun for both young children and older adults—just arrange everything nicely in floral foam.
Try making a mug-sized kadomatsu that’s easy to display in your room for the New Year.
New Year’s decoration of Mount Fuji
As the saying goes, “First Mount Fuji, second hawk, third eggplant,” Mount Fuji is also popular as a lucky charm.
Let’s make a Mount Fuji decoration using washi-pattern origami and reversible paper.
First, glue reversible paper onto a piece of cardboard cut into a rectangle to make the base.
On the two shorter edges, attach strips of washi-pattern origami that you’ve cut into long, thin pieces.
Next, using origami or reversible paper, create various parts—starting with Mount Fuji, as well as the sun, zodiac animals, and more—and stick them onto the base to finish.
It might also be nice to incorporate items like stickers or mizuhiki cords.
Attach a string and hang it on the wall for display!
New Year’s holiday fan ornament
This is a lavish decoration perfect for the New Year, featuring various lucky motifs arranged on a fan-shaped base.
It’s important to consider the color balance with the decorations and carefully choose which origami paper to use for the main fan.
Popular items to include are ornamental cabbages, camellias, and cranes—elements that embody not only beauty but heartfelt wishes for the coming year.
Since the fan-shaped base has tiers, it’s best to aim for a sense of three-dimensionality in the arrangement—not just by cutting origami or construction paper, but by giving the overall display depth and dimension.
Fan ornament
Fans are considered one of the auspicious symbols to see in your first dream of the year, making them a perfect motif for New Year’s as well.
Another advantage is how easy they are to incorporate into decorations: if you combine several fan-shaped pieces of paper, they form a circle.
Fold a sheet of paper accordion-style, then fold it in half to make a fan shape; assemble several of these to create the base, and then add decorations.
To evoke a New Year’s atmosphere, the standard approach is to make the fans with red-and-white origami and to incorporate mizuhiki cords and illustrations of the zodiac as decorations.