Disney Lunar New Year at Home

Disney Lunar New Year at home brings food and activities from the popular festival at California Adventure right to you. 

Lunar New Year is often referred to as Chinese New Year or Spring Festival, but is celebrated throughout many Asian countries, each with their own additions and traditions. 

The 15 day celebration is a time for new beginnings, gathering with family and friends. The main theme of all celebrations are health, luck and prosperity. Keep reading for ways to celebrate at home or click here to learn about the festivities in the park.

Disney Lunar New Year at Home Decor

Disney Lunar New Year at home means decorations! Remember those paper lanterns you made in school? They’re so simple and can be made from construction paper or card-stock, but you can also totally glam them up with ribbon and embellishments. 

I bought a few pieces of both solid and patterned paper to make festive Lunar New Year paper lanterns at home, just like they do a California Adventure each year. 

Gather your supplies, fold your paper in half and mark the cut lines about an inch or so apart. Use a ruler and pencil to draw cut marks perpendicular to the folded edge. Leave an inch or two uncut at the top.

When you’re done cutting, unfold with cuts going up and down. Curl paper into a cylinder and staple or tape edges together.

Add ribbon or other embellishments with a hot glue gun and hang in your home. These beautiful Disney Lunar New Year decorations are easy to make and instantly create a festive celebration right at home!

Disney Lunar New Year at Home Activities

The lantern above certainly doubles as an activity but I’ve got one more that doubles as both decor and an activity. 

The Disney Lunar New Year Wishing Wall is one of my favorite traditions. Create your own space at home for a Wishing Wall. It can be as simple as taping wishes to a wall, or creating a free-standing wishing wall.

We decided to use part of our stair railing to act as our at home wishing wall. Here you can write your New Year Wishes on Mickey-shaped Lunar New Year wishing paper, or any shape you want to print out, buy or create.

Hang your wishes on the Lucky Wishing Wall for good luck and prosperity. Here’s what it looks like at California Adventure to give you an idea of what to recreate at home.

You family can enjoy placing wishes every day throughout January and February! A lot of families do something similar with paper turkeys or leaves during Thanksgiving, writing down things they’re grateful for. I love incorporating this tradition for wishes, because wishes aren’t just for birthdays!

More Lunar New Year Activities:

• Wear red for luck and prosperity.
• Find your zodiac animal in this article about Disney Lunar New Year. 
• Kids often receive cash in red envelopes, you could give money or switch it up with a gift card or kind note inside.
• Firecrackers (or sparklers) where permitted is a big part of celebrating Lunar New Year because of this legend. 
• Don’t forget to watch your favorite version of Mulan on Disney Plus.

Disney Lunar New Year at Home Food

Lucky for us, Lunar New Year got a full run in January and February 2020, before the closure. My kids’ favorite food from Lunar New Year in 2020 was the Mickey Chinese hot dog bun and it’s super easy to make at home.

Plus, get more food ideas from browsing photos of all the food from the previous Disney Lunar New Year here.

Mickey Chinese Hot Dog Bun Recipe

Grab these ingredients and get started making your own Disney Lunar New Year food at home. The Mickey Chinese hot dog bun recipe takes only a few minutes to make. Kids can help too!

• Your favorite pre-made pizza dough. I used Pillsbury pizza dough and got 3 Mickey buns from the initial roll out, 2 more when I combined the leftovers and used a rolling pin. Use two packages to make it even easier, depending on how many you need.
• Hot dogs. I love Hebrew National or Nathan’s Famous hot dogs, both come in all beef but your favorite brand will work just fine.
• Mickey Mouse cookie cutter. I use mine for anything with dough. Get your Mickey Mouse cookie cutters here. 

Now that you’ve gathered your Mickey Chinese hot dog bun ingredients it is time to get cooking! This is the perfect recipe to get the kids involved and celebrate Lunar New Year at home. 

1. Preheat oven and pan according to pizza dough package directions. Mine required 400 degrees and spraying the pan. 
2. Roll out dough and use your Mickey Mouse cookie cutter to completely cut out the Mickey Mouse shape. 
3. Carefully move the Mickey dough to the greased pan.
4. Slice hot dogs, about 8 slices per hot dog depending on size.
5. Add 5 hot dog slices to the Mickey Mouse dough. One in each ear, two for eyes and one for a mouth. 
6. Brush with egg whites for a shiny finish, sprinkle with seasonings and sesame seeds if desired. 
7. Bake according to package instructions or about 10 minutes until golden. 

Want to sweeten up the New Year even more? Try some of these traditional dishes:

• Pineapple tarts, similar to the one featured in 2020’s festival
• Almond cookies
• Sponge cake

I look forward to celebrating Lunar New Year each year. I’ve made so many wonderful memories at Disney California Adventure and introduced new cultures, foods and traditions to our family.

It’s one of the many reasons I love California and Disney California Adventure itself—the celebration of diversity brings variety and joy to my life. 

I hope you can incorporate so new ways to celebrate and learn about Lunar New Year at home this season.