One custom that seems to be fading in China is writing and posting handwritten spring couplets for Chinese New Year. These are two long strips of red paper with matching lines of poetry, which people stick on either side of their front door, often with a shorter phrase across the top.
When I was a child in a small town in Hunan, my grandfather used to write them himself every year. He'd grind the ink, lay the paper on the kitchen table and carefully brush the characters while the rest of us watched. Neighbours who couldn't write well would bring him paper and ask him to do theirs too. It was a proper little event.
These days most people just buy printed couplets from supermarkets for a few yuan, and in big apartment blocks like the one I live in now in Shenzhen, lots of doors don't have any at all. I think it's partly that very few people practise calligraphy anymore, and partly that life is so busy that convenience wins. Some younger people also see it as a bit old-fashioned.
Personally, I feel quite sad about it, although I understand why it's happening. A printed couplet still looks festive, but it lacks the personality of something written by hand for your own family. My grandfather chose lines that suited each year, like wishing for a good harvest or for my exams to go well. Last year I tried writing a pair myself, and they were pretty wobbly, but my mum stuck them up anyway. I'd like to keep doing that so the habit doesn't completely die out.