Chinese New Years will be here soon and I love celebrating it. Hosting a Chinese New Years themed Party is a lot of fun and can easily be done. Traditional Chinese New Years celebrations are about two things: Food and Fun.
The fun part is filled with Fireworks, Lion Dances, Parades, and Ang Pow envelopes. Ang Pow envelopes are those little red brightly decorated envelopes, you stuff them full of money and feed them to the Lion. This will bring you fortune in the New Year. You also tie lettuce to your door and hope the green color tempts him, if it does he will eat your lettuce and grant you fortune in the New Year. Now, that may be a little extreme for your party but, don’t worry. You can still go above and beyond a create an amazing experience.
All you really need is food and decorations. Decorations can include paper lantern, paper pagodas, and images portraying the symbol of the year. For example this is the year of the Snake. I am particularly fond of making paper China Dolls and writing party goers names on them to welcome them to the party. I also recommend making Ang Pow envelopes and using them for invitations.
The next is your menu, planning your menu is as simple as reading a Chinese take out menu. Then just making your favorites, my menu always includes Wontons, Egg Drop Soup, and Fried Rice. But, I also like to throw in foods from Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. This allows for a fun variety of flavors. Here are a few good recipes:
Japanese Sticky Rice
http://eatingeclectic.blogspot.com/2012/03/japanese-sticky-egg-rice.html?m=1
Chinese Wontons
http://eatingeclectic.blogspot.com/2012/03/make-it-wontons-for-soup-or-frying.html?m=1
Chinese Take-Away Egg Gu Young
http://eatingeclectic.blogspot.com/2012/08/chinese-take-away-egg-fu-yung.html?m=1
Chinese Take-Away Beef and Broccoli
http://eatingeclectic.blogspot.com/2012/09/chinese-take-away-beef-and-broccoli_26.html?m=1
Chinese Style Meatballs with Dipping Sauce
http://eatingeclectic.blogspot.com/2012/12/chinese-style-meatballs-with-sweet.html?m=1
Kasuter: Japanese Green Tea Pound Cake
http://eatingeclectic.blogspot.com/2012/11/kasutera-japanese-green-tea-pound-cake.html?m=1
Now your ready for the fun, simply make your favorite foods, decorate, and celebrate with a room full if friends!
Here are some great templates for handmade decorations.
Paper Pagoda (cut three, glue together)
China Doll (cut hair/shoes from black, head from cream, body from red)
Wall Lantern (cut from red, glue on origami if the years symbol)
Ang Pow Envelopes (cut from red and decorate)
