Okay, so I wanted to do something special for the Lunar New Year, and I thought, why not make some cool placemats? I’m no artist, but I figured I could find something online. I remembered seeing something about the Chinese zodiac, and I thought that would be a fun theme.
First, I started poking around online to see what I could find. I just typed “chinese zodiac placemat printable coloring page” into the search bar, and boom! Tons of stuff came up. I found a bunch of free printable placemats with all the zodiac animals on them. They looked pretty neat, so I decided to go with that.

Next, I had to pick which one I liked best. There were a couple of different styles, but I ended up choosing one that had all 12 animals: the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig. Each animal had a little description of its personality traits, which I thought was kind of cool.
Here’s how I got them printed:
- I downloaded the file to my computer. It was a PDF, so that was easy.
- I opened the file and made sure my printer was all set up.
- I hit print, and voila! Out came the placemats.
Now, these were coloring pages, so they were just black and white. If you want to just print it out and use it as a normal placemat it’s totally okay! My original thought was to get some coloring pencils and let everyone color their own placemats at the table. It could be a fun activity, you know? Or, I could color them ahead of time and make them all fancy.
A Little Extra Effort
I was thinking, to make these placemats extra durable, I could laminate them. That way, they’d last longer, and I could use them year after year. Plus, they’d be easier to clean up if there were any spills. I went to a local store and bought some laminating sheets, and followed the instructions on the box. After that I heated up my laminator and slid the placemats through. And they turned out great! They were shiny, sturdy, and ready for a feast.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with how these turned out. They were easy to find, easy to print, and they look pretty good. I think they’ll be a fun addition to our Lunar New Year celebration. If you’re looking for a simple and festive way to decorate your table, I’d definitely recommend giving these a try!