I have very fond memories of my childhood Chinese New Years - most of which involve receiving a hong bao - or red envelope. These would be given to me by my parents, relatives, or family friends. Hong baos are gifts presented at social and family gatherings such as weddings or on holidays such as the Chinese New Year. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits.
I had such a collection of hong baos that as I got older, if my parents would forget to give me one, I would just give them one of my empties and they'd fill it! I think they liked how prepared I was!
Now that I have kids, they are now receiving hong baos. A group of my cousins came to the US last year, from Taiwan. They were visiting and it was the first time they had ever met the boys. Upon meeting the boys, each boy was gifted about six hong baos. I guess I forgot to mention what is in these hong baos that make them so special....they're filled with money!
I have yet to give my kids a hong bao because they haven't really celebrated Chinese New Year - that hasn't stopped other people from giving them hong baos. This year, now that they're really into learning and understanding new things, I will be gifting them with a hong bao. In fact, we're having a group of their friends over for a playdate the day after Chinese New Year and I decided to make a Chinese New Year dinner for the kids and parents. It's also a little experiment, for me, on whether or not I would like to go forth and have bigger Chinese New Year parties for a larger group of people. But I digress.
In my history of receiving hong baos, I have not received any hong bao that has made me stop and say, 'Wow - that's a really cool looking hong bao.' They're all very generic or they have something embossed in gold that I don't quite care about or there is something cheesy about it. Take a look at these hong baos out on the market today:
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| Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty are cool but I haven't seen those at any of the Asian grocery stores by me! |
Here were my materials:
Red Envelope template (click here)
3D dotted card stock from Michael's
Double sided tape
Glue stick
Scissors (of course)
Gold Paint marker (by Sharpie)
It's so simple - just print out the envelope template, cut it out.
Then cut the card stock using the template.
Fold the larger sides towards each other - I used double sided tape to hold them together.
Then take one of the small tabs, put glue on it and fold it up.
Leave the other small tab open but fold it over to close the envelope.
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| The 'baby' hong bao in the bottom left is for a baby coming over - wouldn't want to leave him out! |
I plan on filling them with chocolate coins for the kids.
The first envelope I made came out really nice too - I cut out a template for double happiness and used a craft knife to cut the double happiness symbol out of the gold foil paper. Unfortunately, I was told that double happiness is more for wedding hong baos - not for Chinese New Year hong baos. So here's my extra!
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