Celebrating the Chinese New Year

The last few years here at LMP we’ve celebrated the Chinese New Year. It’s such a fun holiday to prep for and who doesn’t love a good dumpling?!

The New Year usually falls around Valentine’s Day (this year it’s Friday, February 12th), and because red is such a significant color in Chinese traditions, we usually have a ton of decor we can put together for this holiday.

Whether it’s just you and your significant other, or your kids, take the opportunity to bring an extra celebration into your life! You could try a new recipe or give your kids a little lesson on the holiday, its a fun way to teach them about new cultures.

Before the pandemic hit last year, we did a huge Chinese New Year themed Valentine’s Day party for a longtime client of ours who had visited China a few weeks prior and wanted to make it the theme of her yearly V-day party. Obviously the big statement decor piece for this party were these huge dragons we installed onto the ceiling, if you are celebrating at home with kids, I’d suggest having them do a craft like this one. They can either play with it as a puppet or you could use it as a cake topper for decor as well!

Another big thing we wanted to incorporate were these gorgeous fans. This mantel piece was super easy to put together. All you need is a few bunches of greenery and roses from your local grocery store and then simply add in a few fans, you can purchase the ones we used here. At the bottom of the fireplace we used flameless candles to add some more ambience to this corner of the room. We love having these in our back pocket to use when we’re looking for a no mess + stress clean up! And the best part is you can keep this all up in time for Valentine’s Day (just be sure to water tube your flowers).

Of course no party is complete for me without florals! We did this big statement piece out of a ceramic dumpling container we sourced from CB2, sadly it’s no longer available but here is one you could use to get the same effect (be sure to add wet floral foam inside to keep your flowers hydrated and standing up).

Lanterns! Lets talk about the lanterns. You can easily find this at any dollar or party supply store. Fill your ceiling up with them! It will create the dreamiest pictures and if you can actually put lights into them, it makes for a very romanic dinner setting.

A cute detail Maggie once included in one of our shoots were these personalized container place settings. I thought they were so cute that I kept mine on my desk for months following the shoot!

Okay now that we have the decor settled, lets talk about the FOOD! Because seriously who doesn’t love Chinese food?! Debi has made so many Chinese influenced recipes over the years that it seems like a crime to not include some of her delicious recipes! My favorite is this Chicken & Bok Choy Dumpling. Back when I ate meat, I loved these! Now I use the same recipe but fill them with veggies instead.

A dish that I think I’ll be having this year is this gorgeous Stir Fried Eggplant with a Sesame Seaweed Salad. I mean the color on this eggplant alone is enough to take your breath away! It has all the best flavors from traditional Chinese food, but just a little bit healthier so you don’t need to hold back.

Now matter how you choose to celebrate, be sure to tag us in anything you recreate from our blog! And of course, have a Happy New Year!