If you have ever ordered a diamond painting kit in January or February and wondered where it went, the answer is almost certainly this holiday.
A very large share of diamond painting kits — including most marketplace kits and a significant portion of branded ones — are manufactured in and shipped from China. Chinese New Year shuts that entire supply chain down for several weeks, and the disruption starts well before the holiday itself and lasts well after it.
This is what happens, when, and how to plan around it.
What Chinese New Year is
Chinese New Year, also called the Spring Festival or Lunar New Year, is the most important holiday in the Chinese calendar. It falls on a different date each year, following the lunar calendar — typically somewhere between late January and mid-February.
The official public holiday runs about a week. The practical shutdown is much longer.
Why it affects your order so much
This is not a case of a factory closing for a few days and reopening. Several things compound:
It is a mass migration
Hundreds of millions of people travel home for the holiday — it is one of the largest annual human migrations on earth. Factory workers often live far from their families and take the opportunity to make a long visit.
Factories close for weeks, not days
A typical manufacturing shutdown runs two to four weeks. Some smaller workshops stay closed longer. Workers may not return at all, which is why some suppliers genuinely struggle in the weeks afterwards.
The backlog builds before the holiday
Knowing the shutdown is coming, manufacturers and freight companies push to clear orders beforehand. Ports, couriers, and customs all get congested in the weeks leading up to it.
Recovery takes time afterwards
When factories reopen, they face accumulated orders, reduced staffing, and a logistics network still clearing its backlog. Normal service can take several more weeks to resume.
The practical window is roughly six to eight weeks of degraded service: about two to three weeks of pre-holiday congestion, the shutdown itself, and two to three weeks of slow recovery afterwards.
How it shows up in your order
Depending on when you order, you may see:
- Longer processing times. Listings that normally dispatch in 2–3 days may say 1–2 weeks.
- Extended delivery estimates. Standard shipping that usually takes 2–3 weeks may quote 4–6.
- "Ships after [date]" notices on listings.
- Out-of-stock items that were in stock a week earlier, as sellers hold back inventory.
- Tracking that stalls. Packages may sit at a sorting facility or port for days.
- Slower customer service. Sellers are often running skeleton crews.
- Occasional substitutions. If a specific drill colour runs short, some sellers will substitute.
None of this means your order is lost. It means the whole system is slower.
What this does not affect
Worth knowing, so you do not over-plan:
- Kits already in a domestic warehouse. Many brands and marketplace sellers hold stock locally. These ship normally.
- Sellers in your own country who make or stock kits domestically.
- Digital products — patterns, charts, and custom design proofs.
- Tools and accessories held in local stock.
If you need something urgently, filter specifically for sellers with domestic stock.
How to plan around it
Order early
If you want kits for a spring project, order in December or very early January. By mid-January the pre-holiday congestion is already building.
Buy a backlog
Experienced painters often order two or three kits at once during the autumn and winter, specifically so they are not dependent on shipping during the shutdown window. Given that a large canvas takes weeks, a small backlog is easy to build and removes the problem entirely.
Check the listing and the seller
- Look for "ships from" your own country or region
- Read the estimated delivery date carefully, not the "dispatch time"
- Check recent reviews for delivery experiences in January and February
- Look for explicit holiday notices on the shop page
Allow margin for gifts
If a kit is a gift for a specific date — a birthday, a holiday — do not order it in the shutdown window. Order weeks ahead or buy from domestic stock.
Do not panic-order
If your order is delayed during this period, placing a second order usually makes things worse: you may end up with duplicates, and the second order faces the same delays. Message the seller first and give it time.
Track, but do not obsess
Tracking during this period is often unreliable, with long gaps between scans. A package can sit unscanned for a week and then move normally. Give it the full quoted window before raising a claim.
If your order is genuinely stuck
Reasonable steps, in order:
- Check the quoted delivery window. If you are still inside it, wait.
- Message the seller politely and ask for an update. During this period they are usually dealing with the same question repeatedly and will tell you honestly.
- Check the tracking detail for the last scan location. Sometimes a package has cleared customs and is simply in domestic transit.
- If the window has clearly passed, open a dispute through the marketplace's buyer protection. Most platforms extend protection periods and will resolve in your favour.
- For direct purchases, a chargeback is a last resort, but it is available if a seller stops responding entirely.
A note for custom orders
Custom diamond paintings — made from your own photograph — are the most affected category, because they are made to order and cannot come from existing stock.
If you are ordering a custom canvas for a specific date, order at least eight weeks ahead during the holiday season, and confirm the production timeline with the seller in writing before paying.
The short version
Chinese New Year takes roughly six to eight weeks out of the diamond painting supply chain every year, centred on a date between late January and mid-February. If you order in that window from a China-based seller, expect delays and plan accordingly.
The simplest fix is the oldest one: buy ahead. Stock a couple of kits in the autumn and the problem never touches you.
Related reading: The 6 BEST Places To Get Your Diamond Painting Kits From covers which sources hold domestic stock, and What Should I Do When My Diamond Painting Kit Comes? is what to do in the first hour after it finally arrives.