Today – Celebrating Chinese New year
My children had been learning about Chinese New Year at school so I was delighted to host a Chinese New Year Party as a surprise for them.
The first thing I did was buy a book that very simply explained some of the customs of Chinese New Year. I bought one simple enough for the children to read and understand it too.
I was sent some fortune cookies and a little red envelopes to put money in for the children from the people at hungryhouse who also sent me a voucher to order some take out Chinese food.
I set the table with some paper lanterns and a big dragon picture on the wall (I know it’s the year of the horse but dragons are meant to bring good luck!)
I also had a little shrine for the centerpiece
All these were purchased from Amazon for a few pounds and all can be kept for subsequent years when we can do this all over again!
I took the children for haircuts and I didn’t sweep the floor (both customary apparently!)
The children had no idea I was setting this all up for them in the kitchen so it was an exciting surprise for them.
A simple way to order take out food
Using the hungryhouse website we just popped in our postcode chose the kind of food we wanted to order. We were then presented with a list of restaurants near us. We chose a restaurant and perused the online menu. We chose our food ( sweet and sour tofu, egg friend rice, spring rolls, vegetables and cashew nuts and pineapple fritters). It was that simple. We paid, entered a few details and 1/2 hour later our food arrived.
So much easier than us trawling through lots of menus trying to find one we like! W had never heard of the particular restaurant we ordered form . This is another great plus of hungryhouse you can find new restaurants that you may not have come across let alone have a menu for!
Here is our feast!
The kids were so excited. I explained all the customs too then , we plaed some mandarin muci c on spitfy and I read to them form the book. The y opened their money envelopes and we had a go with chopsticks (though they were quickly abandoned)I told the m the story of how the chinese zodiac and how the years were assigned to the various animals.
Then we all tucked into our delicious food.
This process was simples and the food was absolutely delicious. Yum!
There was very little washing up no prep and more time for me to set up the party, relax and enjoy it. It is surprising how unflustered not having to cook makes me!
Huge thanks to hungryhouse for our party pack, and the voucher for the their website and to buy party decorations form Amazon. We had so much fun!
You may also enjoy my post on Easy Ways to celebrate New Year’s Eve with your Kids as well as my Chinese money crafts and The Chinese zodiac for kids
Take a look here for more ways to celebrate Chinese new year in 2023