Lunar New Year coloring pages and activities for kids (2027)

Lunar New Year 2027 falls on Saturday, February 6, according to Hong Kong's official list of 2027 general holidays, and the Hong Kong Observatory's 2027 calendar table names it the Year of the Goat. The best coloring pages for it show things families really do: red envelopes, lanterns, dumplings, lion and dragon dances, and the zodiac animal for the year. Below are page ideas, free activities from museums and community groups, and picture books that get the traditions right.

One honest note first: we are writing about a holiday that is not ours to define. Every tradition below is linked to a museum, a community organization or an author who celebrates it, and the best source of all is a family that keeps it.

Goat, sheep or ram: getting 2027 right

The 2027 zodiac animal shows up in English as a goat, a sheep or a ram. They are translations of the same sign, not a disagreement. The Hong Kong Observatory uses Goat, while San Francisco's parade organizers say they will celebrate the Year of the Ram on Saturday, February 20, 2027. Any of the three is fine on a coloring page. If you are making pages for a class or a mixed group, a friendly goat with curled horns covers all three readings.

The date shifts every year because it follows the lunar calendar, which is why last year's printable is usually the wrong animal. San Francisco's parade site notes that February 17, 2026, marked the first day of the Year of the Horse, so a 2026 page is already out of date.

Coloring page ideas that match real traditions

Pick subjects that come from what families do, not from a generic "Asian" clip-art bin. These all have a community source behind them:

• Red envelopes. The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco explains that red envelopes, called hóngbāo in Mandarin and lai see in Cantonese, are customarily filled with money by elders and given to young children as a token of good luck. The museum notes common designs include proverbs, zodiac animals and the fú character, the word for good fortune. A coloring page of an envelope with a zodiac animal on it is easy for small kids.
• The twelve zodiac animals and the Great Race. The Museum of Chinese in America has used the legend of the great zodiac race in its family storytimes, along with a craft to explore the twelve animals of the race. A wheel of all twelve, each in its own wedge, makes a good page for kids who want to find their own animal.
• The Nian monster. MOCA tells the legend that the Nian monster comes out the night before the new year to frighten villagers and eat their food, and invites families to draw their own imaginary Nian, since some say it has a lion's head and a bull's body and others say it is a sea beast. A blank page with "What does your Nian look like?" at the top is the best coloring page on this list. MOCA's storytime also asks kids to wear red and bring something noisy to scare it away.
• Getting the house ready. Grace Lin's picture book follows a Chinese American family as they sweep out the dust of the old year, hang decorations and make dumplings, then put on new clothes. Each of those is a page: a broom and a pile of dust, a table of dumplings, a kid in new clothes.
• Parades, lanterns and drums. San Francisco's parade history describes marchers in the 1860s carrying flags, banners, lanterns, drums and firecrackers to drive away evil spirits. Lanterns are simple shapes that toddlers can color, and a long dragon page can be taped together end to end.

A small practical tip: give kids red, gold and orange crayons, plus whatever else they want. Nobody needs to color a dragon in the "right" colors.

Free activities from museums and community groups

You do not need to buy anything to celebrate with kids.

• Make red envelopes. The Asian Art Museum's red envelope activity has a free printable template, takes 20 to 30 minutes and lists every grade level from pre-K up. If you have no red paper, the museum suggests printing on white paper and coloring it red. Kids write a wish on a slip of paper and tuck it inside, which is a lovely job for a preschooler.
• Draw the Nian together. MOCA's family version is a group drawing game, so grandparents can play too.
• Go to a local festival. Many cities hold free celebrations. Tết in Seattle, for example, runs a free festival at Seattle Center that celebrates Tết Nguyên Đán, the Vietnamese observance of the Lunar New Year, with arts, music, performances and food. Check your city's Chinatown association, a Vietnamese or Korean community center, or the local library for events near you.
• Ask a family member to teach one thing. A greeting, how they fold dumplings, what their family puts on the table. Then let your kid draw it. That page is worth more than any printable.

Picture books to read before you color

All three are verified on the author's or publisher's own page:

Book	Author	What it is about
Bringing In the New Year	Grace Lin	A Chinese American family gets ready, ending with a fold-out dragon parade. A read-aloud picture book.
Ling & Ting's Lunar New Year: Two Times Lucky	Grace Lin	Chinese American twins who celebrate the new year two times and want a lucky year. Six short chapters, good for new readers.
Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas	Natasha Yim, illustrated by Grace Zong	A Goldilocks retelling set in a contemporary Chinatown, where Goldy delivers turnip cakes one Chinese New Year.

Read the book, then hand over a page that matches a scene from it. Kids color longer when they know the story behind the picture.

Make a page about your own family

The pages that hold kids longest are the ones about them. Draw your own family at the New Year table, or a grandparent handing over a red envelope. If drawing is not your thing, our guide to turning a photo into a coloring page for free shows a few ways to trace a family photo into line art at home.

Pages with the family in them, grandparents included, are the ones kids come back to, and holidays are when those pages matter most.

We are also making a Lunar New Year coloring storybook of our own, written with care and reviewed before any art is drawn. It is not on sale yet. Until then, Colorkin can draw a page of your family from a photo, and the free sample is a good way to see if your kids like it.

For more holidays and heritage across many cultures, see our family and heritage guides. If you are planning a classroom celebration, our guide to making a class coloring book works well with a "how my family celebrates" theme.

Questions parents ask