[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 (121–130)
New Year’s decorations made with quilling
Quilling is an art where you combine tightly rolled strips of paper to create a single picture.
Let’s make New Year’s decorations using quilling! There are special tools for rolling the paper, but a toothpick works just as well.
Wrap the paper around the toothpick, slide it off, and you’ve made one piece.
Don’t forget to secure it with glue so it doesn’t unravel! If you want to add corners, simply crease the rolled piece where you want the angles after rolling.
Make coils in various colors and sizes to suit your design.
Then combine them and glue them in place to finish! For a New Year’s theme, how about making plum blossoms, kadomatsu, or shuttlecocks for hanetsuki?
Ema with sponge stamps
Ema, the wooden plaques on which people write their wishes and hang them at shrines, are one of the key motifs that evoke the New Year.
Let’s easily make our own ema out of construction paper and decorate them beautifully with sponge stamps.
Even with a simple paper shape, adding brush-pen lettering and a red seal gives it a genuine ema feel.
If carving sponges to make stamps is difficult, another great approach is to prepare a variety of stamp patterns in advance and have people choose the one that best fits their wish.
It might be better to focus more on the writing aspect than on the crafting itself.
Felt kadomatsu
Let’s try making a kadomatsu using warm, cozy felt fabric! You can make it without sewing, and since you’ll be using your fingers a lot, it’s perfect for finger dexterity training for seniors.
Cut out each part—pine, bamboo, and plum—from felt, then attach them with a glue gun or similar adhesive.
A good tip is to make the bamboo first as the base, then arrange the other plants while checking the balance.
Watching it gradually take on the look of a kadomatsu will likely be exciting for seniors, too.
You can also enjoy customizing it, such as by changing the decoration colors!
Japanese-style wreath
How about making and displaying a wreath—often seen at Christmas or Halloween—in a Japanese style? Prepare small sheets of washi-pattern origami paper and fold the parts for the wreath.
Fold the paper in half vertically twice to create creases, then fold both corners toward the center.
With the excess strip, fold it lengthwise toward the center twice to crease it; then fold along the second crease from the top, flip the piece over, and tuck in any parts that stick out.
Fold back the lower edge of the triangular section, and fold the whole piece in half—one unit is complete! Make about eight units, then interlock them by slotting each piece into the next to form the wreath shape.
[For Seniors] Let’s Make New Year Decorations by Hand! Easy Ideas Using Everyday Materials (131–140)
Shimenawa wreath made with origami
Why not try folding a New Year’s shimenawa or wreath using red-and-white or spring-like pink origami paper? Prepare 10 pieces made with the same folding method.
Once you’ve folded all 10, assemble them so they form a circular wreath.
After the shimenawa wreath is complete, let’s make plum blossoms for decoration as well.
Just make them in large and small sizes with the same origami paper and attach them to the shimenawa wreath.
Glue them wherever you like, and you’ll have an easy, cute New Year’s shimenawa.
It’s a fun craft for everyone, from children to seniors.
New Year decorations made with origami and paper flowers
We’d like to introduce a New Year’s decoration you can make with origami and tissue paper—perfect for cozy winter days at home or for recreation at day service centers! It’s appealing because you can make it with familiar materials like origami and tissue paper.
Arrange a tissue paper flower, a fan made by accordion-folding origami, and mizuhiki cords in a well-balanced way.
The key is to attach the mizuhiki to the fan and then secure the paper flower last! Changing the color or pattern of the origami for the fan and the color of the mizuhiki will dramatically change the overall look, so give it a try.
New Year swag
Swag, which means “wall decoration” in German, is a craft that lends itself to creating seasonal pieces.
You can complete one simply by harvesting plants with flowers or berries and tying them into a bundle, so it should be easy for seniors to make as well.
Of course, you can also plan the types and amounts of plants you gather, making it fun to create a swag full of originality.
Because it engages your fingers and imagination, it can help stimulate the brain and provide a soothing effect—definitely a craft worth trying.
