Chinese New Year 2022, we’re ready for you! After over a year of missing out on family gatherings, it’s finally time for us to reunite with our loved ones. If there was anything 2020 – 2021 taught us, it’s that we should treasure our connection with those around us. That’s why for this year’s list of gift ideas, we’d like for you to choose to slow down. To enjoy the journey: planning, creating, wrapping, remembering and sharing. 

With things stabilising, people are finally able to have their long-awaited family reunions. Being able to give a unique, memorable and ‘can’t wait to give’ kind of gift will start to become a priority to a lot of people.  

So we’ve decided to help out. Here’s a list of some of the top gifts that your loved ones will enjoy receiving for this Chinese New Year.

Bonus: You can personalise them, too! 

Homemade Cookies

Chinese New Year is not about giving out hampers and mandarin oranges. It’s a time to show your love and appreciation to your family and friends for all their support. It’s also a time to wish them good fortune and luck for the coming new year. 

During the peak Covid-lockdown period, many of us ended up picking up a new hobby such as cooking and baking. So why not put those new skills to good use by baking your own festive treats. We’re sure everyone will appreciate your efforts and, who doesn’t love getting cookies?

Here are 8 Easy CNY cookie recipes to help you get started. Once the cookies are all done, pack them up and use some personalised sticker labels to decorate the jars. It’ll help to give it that extra ‘oomph!’ and to stand out from the rest of the snacks.  

With CNY less than a month away, you might want to start baking!

CNY Reunion Photo Book

Planning to host a family gathering for Chinese New Year? Why not surprise your relatives with a CNY Reunion Photo Book. They’re fun to make and everyone will love looking through the pages to see how much they’ve changed over the years. While it does take some time to create a full-fledged photo book, the results will definitely be worth it. 

Not sure how to get started? Our blog post on How to Create a Personalised Family Yearbook has some amazing tips on how you can get started. 

In case you’re not able to host a family reunion due to the omicron variant outbreaks, don’t worry. You can still create a heartfelt photo book for the Chinese New Year. What you can do is use photos from previous CNY Reunions to create your photo book. To make it more fun, you can also create a whatsapp group and have your family send in their photos too. 

Story Tag Cards

Don’t have enough photos to make a photo book? Try gifting Story Tag Cards instead. As mentioned before, photos make for meaningful and nostalgic gifts. They help people to recall their happy moments. Additionally, you don’t need any special equipment to enjoy a good photo.  

So why Story Tag Cards and not photo prints? 

Of course, there’s no reason why you can’t give photo prints. They also make for great gifts! But Story Tag Cards definitely have a more modern and appealing look. Like the instax polaroids prints, the Story Tag Cards come with a border/frame. You can either leave it blank or decorate it with different patterns or backgrounds. 

Since Chinese New Year means that you can flex your OOTD’s, be sure to record the moments down and print them out.  Available in 3 different sizes (mini, wide and insta), they also come in cute storage boxes in the shape of a camera. 

Playing Cards

It’s no secret that in Chinese culture, games play an important part in helping families bond. A family gathering doesn’t feel complete without playing some Chinese New Year Games. This is especially evident during the Chinese New Year celebrations. During this time, many family members tend to stay together for a few days under one roof. 

One of the most common ways to pass the time and to feel ‘festive’ is by playing games like Mahjong or Chinese Poker. To spice up this year’s game of poker, why not surprise your relatives with a deck of personalised playing cards. 

Use their photos from previous gatherings to create a unique, family deck. Seeing the surprise and delight on their faces when they see it will leave you grinning too.

Ang Pow

Giving ang pows as gifts for Chinese New Year dates back all the way to the Qin Dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC). Back then, the elderly would thread coins with a red string. They would then give it to the younger generation as a way to ward off evil spirits. The legend surrounding the act of giving ang pows is also very interesting. To give a little preview, it involves demons, fairies and gold coins wrapped in red paper.

In modern times, ang pows are no longer the standard red colour. They may come in shades of orange, pink, and yellow. But their significance remains unchanged. Still, the act of giving cash to someone can sometimes feel a bit impersonal. To ease that feeling, you can opt to customise your own set of money packets. From adding elements like: 

• Stickers
• Names
• Quotes 
• Family photos

A set of personalised money packets is just the thing to make your ang pows stand out.

And that concludes our blog on the top 5 Chinese New Year Gift Ideas (2022 Edition)! In summary, Chinese New Year this year is going to be even more special. After over a year of not seeing everybody, do expect a lot of pleasant surprises! 

Interested in creating personalised gifts for Chinese New Year? Be sure to visit the Pixajoy website to get started! Chinese New Year is a few weeks away after all.