Mid-Autumn is the festival I'd recommend to anybody with a small child. I've done a lot of festivals with a lot of small children, in a city far from where I grew up, and this one is the easiest.
The reason is simple. It happens outdoors after dark, it moves slowly, it involves walking and looking up, and the central activity is carrying a light around. There's no seated meal to sit through, no performance to be quiet during, and nothing that has to happen at a particular minute. For a toddler that's close to ideal, and for a family with a child who finds crowds hard it's one of the few festival evenings that can be done on your own terms. That's how it feels to me, anyway. Dominic may remember it differently.
Nine things to do
Almost all of these cost nothing, and the ones that involve making something count for more to a two-year-old than anything you can buy.
- Walk with a lantern after dark. This is the whole festival for a toddler and everything else is optional. Twenty minutes around your own block counts.
- Make the lantern together from a paper cup, a jar or a milk carton. The making is half the evening, and Holly at two was far more interested in the process than the result.
- Look at the moon properly, on a balcony or from a window if you'd rather not go out at all.
- Eat pomelo, which is a good toddler fruit once you take the membrane off, and put the peel on her head, because that's what the peel is for.
- Read a moon story. There are several versions of the Chang'e legend written for small children and they hold up.
- Do a moon-phase craft with paper plates. It sounds ambitious, but my six-year-old still wants to do it.
- Give her a flashlight of her own. A lantern with a battery tea light inside is safer and equally magical.
- Sing something. Any song works; the point is the walking and the noise you make while you do it.
- Take a photograph early in the evening while everybody is still cheerful, and then stop.
More to make
Mooncake, and why not
Mooncake isn't a food for babies, and the pressure to share it is strong, so here are the reasons.
A traditional baked mooncake is extremely high in sugar and the lotus paste is very dense. A salted egg yolk is very salty, and it's exactly the size and shape to get stuck in a small airway. Snowskin mooncake has a glutinous skin that's sticky and doesn't break up well in the mouth. None of that is cause for worry, but all of it is reason to say no, easily and without a debate.
| Food | Under 1 | 1-3 years | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baked mooncake | No | A thin sliver at most | Very high sugar; lotus paste is dense |
| Salted egg yolk | No | No | Salt load, plus a choking-shaped object |
| Snowskin mooncake | No | A small piece | Glutinous skin is sticky: cut small |
| Pomelo | Yes, membrane off | Yes | Good toddler fruit |
| Water chestnut | Chopped fine | Quartered | Hard and round: a choking risk whole |
| Taro, steamed | Yes, mashed | Yes | Soft and mild |
| Yam paste dessert | No | Small amount | Usually very sweet |
A one-year-old who has a sliver of the pastry and none of the filling is fine. A baby under one shouldn't have any of it, and she won't miss anything she'll remember.
Lanterns, and the candle question
I'll be brief and unambiguous here, because this is the one real hazard of an otherwise gentle festival.
Mentioned above
Bamboo Swaddle Single (Printed)S$29.00Shop nowTraditional paper lanterns with real candles and small children don't belong together. The lantern is held at the exact height of a toddler's face, the paper is designed to be thin, and a child who trips is holding an open flame. Every year emergency departments across the region see burns from exactly this, and it always happens the same way.
- Use battery tea lights or LED lanterns for anybody under school age. They look the same at night and nobody has ever complained.
- If older children are carrying candle lanterns, keep them well away from the little ones and away from anything that can catch.
- Keep lanterns out of prams and carriers entirely. A lantern above a sleeping baby is a bad idea however it's lit.
- Check for small parts on cheap plastic lanterns before they're handed over, since the batteries in particular are a serious swallowing hazard.
- Do it in an open space, on a flat surface, with more adults than children if you can manage it.
What time to go out
This is the question that decides whether the evening works, and the answer is earlier than you'd think. Go out at dusk, when it's dark enough for a lantern to glow and early enough that a toddler is still herself. For most young families that's around half past six to half past seven, well before the crowds arrive. Then come home. You'll be tempted to stay for the busy part, but there's nothing in it for a two-year-old. I've taken five children through a lot of festival evenings, and my eldest taught me the best thing I know about all of them: leave while it's still going well. Dominic is autistic, and for years I only noticed he needed to leave several minutes after he needed to leave. Now we go early, I watch for the signs, and we leave before anybody is upset. That works for every child in the family.
Questions from the group chat
Can babies eat mooncake?
No. Traditional mooncake is extremely high in sugar and fat, and the salted egg yolk is both very salty and a choking-shaped object. A toddler over one can have a thin sliver at most.
Are candle lanterns safe for children?
Use LED lanterns for anyone under about six. A candle inside a paper lantern held by a small child in the dark is how paper lantern fires happen, and they spread quickly.
What can a toddler do at Mid-Autumn Festival?
A short lantern walk after dark, a pomelo-skin hat, making a milk-carton lantern, eating pomelo segments, and looking at and naming the moon.
What's a pomelo hat?
The peel of a pomelo scored into segments and eased off whole, then worn. It's a traditional Mid-Autumn thing to do with children, costs nothing, and the fruit gets eaten afterwards.
What time should you take a toddler lantern walking?
Just after sunset, around seven in Singapore. Dark enough for the lanterns to show and early enough to get home for a bath.
The evidence
This guide is general information, written to help you understand a topic and ask better questions. It is not medical advice and does not replace your own doctor, midwife or paediatrician. Anything that worries you about your baby belongs with them.