12 Festive Animals to Crochet for Lunar New Year

December 24, 2025 Nora Xu

Back in January 2023, I designed a crochet pattern for a Lunar New Year rabbit with its festive lantern. The initial plan was, for each year, to design the zodiac animal of that year, thinking it would be a little new tradition and an opportunity to reconnect with the culture I grew up in. With countless years of being away from family around Lunar New Year, I felt traditions like giving and receiving red envelopes, having hours-long dinners, and going door to door to greet neighbors, have drifted farther and farther away from me. Since I started to crochet, making something with this craft as a new form of celebration has been comforting and makes me feel connected to home even when I am away.

In the second year, 2024, after releasing the pattern for a dragon, I received a message from a crocheter asking about a tiger pattern in the same style. Based on the zodiac order, the tiger comes before the rabbit, and if I’d continued with my initial plan, this crocheter would have had to wait for a decade for the tiger pattern. That message changed my mind. I realized that people might not want to make only the animal of the year, but also the animal of the year they were born – a more personal celebration. So, I decided to complete all 12 animals well before the passage of a decade.

As we approach the end of 2025, the complete Lunar New Year Lantern Zodiac Animals series, which includes crochet patterns for a festive lantern basket and all 12 zodiac animals, is here and ready to bring extra joy to the new year celebrations.

The lunar calendar assigns an animal to each year in a 12-year cycle. The order of the animals, according to an ancient folktale, is the result of a “Great Race” called by the “Jade Emperor,” one of the primordial gods in Chinese mythology. The Jade Emperor proclaimed that the years on the calendar would be named in the order that the animals arrived at the race’s destination. The mouse came in first, followed by the ox, tiger…and the pig finally in 12th place.

Some customs associate people’s personalities with attributes of the animal that corresponds to their birth year. This makes the animals not just a representation of the year, but also something of a mascot for everyone born in that year. “I am a Monkey!” “I’m a Dog!” My friends and I often share our animals when we talk about our ages.

In the past few years, I’ve seen some crocheters making my Rabbit, Dragon, and Snake with lanterns to decorate their homes around Lunar New Year. Others were making the ornament as gifts for friends, family members, and even Mahjong partners. Now, with all the animals in the series ready, which will you crochet, and what will you do with your zodiac animals and their lantern baskets?

Let’s take a closer look at each zodiac animal pattern in order:

All 12 crochet patterns use basic crochet stitches and techniques, and each pattern includes easy-to-follow instructions along with many clear guiding images.

You can choose to purchase any individual patterns, each including instructions for a specific animal and a lantern basket, or you can enjoy a great discount by purchasing the 12-in-1 bundle that includes all the zodiac animal and lantern crochet patterns in this series.