Mark the Lunar New Year with a Chinese New Year Party
Hold on January, it isn’t the new year just yet. You may have already had your New Year’s Day party, but Chinese New Year is when to really usher it in! By the lunar calendar, we celebrate each year’s beginning as early as January 21st or as late as February 20th. The Chinese Zodiac also determines which animal governs each year in a cycle of twelve. February 10th, 2024 kicks off the Year of the Dragon. If you want to celebrate and generate good fortune, get ready to deep clean your house, prepare a delicious feast, and deck out your home for a joyous Chinese New Year Party!
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How to Throw a Chinese New Year Party
1. Clean Your House and Clear Space for Chinese New Year Decorations
I know that nobody wants to clean their house; we all just want to party. But this is a very important prerequisite for your Chinese New Year Party. You need to clear out any bad luck from the previous year to create space for the new year’s good fortune. Nobody wants a party with bad luck (or a crusty dusty coffee table)!
Once your house is breezy and clean, it’s easy to decorate for a Chinese New Year party. Hang classic red Chinese New Year lanterns and string up fairy lights nearby to cast a gorgeous red and gold glow. Red represents prosperity and energy, which repels evil spirits and negativity. So cover your space is swaths of red with things like a red tablecloth, or red throw pillows or blankets for the couch. Include gold accents anywhere you can.
You can usually find inexpensive party supplies if you know where to look. Even if you can only put up a hint of Chinese New Year decorations, any efforts done with intention and creativity will beautifully set the scene! You can easily DIY fu cutouts, the intricate red diamond-shaped paper decorations with upside-down fu (‘good fortune’) characters drawn in black. Think of crafting paper snowflakes as a child where you fold the paper many times and cut patterns in it before unfolding and smoothing flat. It’s really that simple. Many years ago I invited my friends over to make these, and each lunar new year I still tape them on windows and the front door and hang others from the ceiling.
More festive Chinese New Year decorations for inspiration:
- Red Chinese lanterns (set of 10)
- Red Chinese lanterns with gold characters (set of 2)
- Decorative red and gold Chinese New Year wall hangings (pair of 2)
- Chinese New Year red envelopes
- Red Chinese lantern-pattern table runner
- Red and orange Chinese New Year-themed pattern table runner
- Year of the Dragon Chinese New Year centerpiece/table toppers (set of 15)
- Chinese New Year red and gold dragon paper plates (set of 12)
- More festive Chinese New Year décor and party supplies
2. Prepare Chinese New Year Food and Beverages
Treat your guests with any number of delicious Chinese New Year recipes! Learn about the importance of Chinese New Year food traditions and prep your meal with intention so you can maximize everyone’s good luck and explain these customs to them as well. For instance, noodles are important because they symbolize life longevity. And you should serve an even number of dishes on your table, because good things come in pairs. Offer plenty of ripe, juicy oranges for abundance and happiness. Check out these Chinese New Year Dishes to bring you the best luck. For your vegetarian guests, cook Vegetarian Steamed Dumplings. For a sweet treat, try your hand at a Chinese New Year cake.
Instead of champagne, toast the new year with a bottle of baijiu (white sorghum wine) or other traditional Chinese New Year drinks. While baijiu is similar to vodka, its alcohol proof is more than double that of common liquors, so it isn’t something to drink in the same quantities as wine (or even vodka!). For drinking guests who aren’t into straight-up shots, try your hand at this Baijiu Cocktail for Chinese New Year.
If you are only able to host your Chinese New Year party on the actual new year day (Saturday, February 10th in 2024), whether by choice or due to guests’ availability (see the first point in the checklist of preparations for your Chinese New Year party section below), then serve plenty of tea! New Year’s Day is traditionally the day of visiting with friends and relatives and is more of a daytime social gathering than a party night. Alcohol can still be part of the party but tea naturally takes centerstage on this day.
3. Play Chinese New Year-Themed Music
Background music is key for a party’s vibe. If your Chinese New Year party is full steam on New Year’s Eve and everyone’s energy levels are high, bump up some Chinese pop. If you’re entertaining a more relaxed crowd on the actual new year day, play relaxing Chinese New Year festival-themed music or similarly relaxing Chinese music for a cheery and atmospheric party soundtrack. Or swap either style for either type of party – it depends on your preferences and what best sets the mood! To amp things up with powerful percussion, play a dragon dance (fitting for this year!) or watch one, too.
4. Add Lucky Scents
We covered the sights, the flavors, and the sounds of Chinese New Year. But don’t stop there. Here are a few fun scented candles to light and waft in the aroma of Chinese New Year!
- Good Luck Cat-shaped candle (white tea scented)
- Persimmon-shaped candle (orange and mimosa scented)
- Year of the dragon Chinese New Year 2024 candle (multiple scent options)
- Chinese zodiac manifestation candle (multiple scents: dragon is lotus/lychee/sandalwood)
5. Play Chinese New Year Games and Activities
If you or any of your guests know how to play mahjong, this is the time to share those skills and show others how to join in! I’m told it is a complex game with a learning curve and so at least one person should have enough knowledge to teach the others. If you already have four mahjong pros, make sure you have the game ready to play!
If your guests enjoy drinking games, play traditional Chinese ones! According to Fefe Ho of chinesenewyear.net, Chinese drinking games are either sophisticated or common. Sophisticated games (雅令 / yǎ lìng), or word games (文字令 / wén zì lìng), were enjoyed by ancient nobles who convened to create poetry or tell riddles. If someone couldn’t respond with a line, they had to drink. Other times, wine was the reward: the Han Dynasty’s Emperor Wu had his officials create poems with rhyming lines of seven words each. The consequence of failure was no seat at the banquet (talk about FOMO). For your guests, a poem-writing (or rap contest) drinking game could generate plenty of clever (or hilarious) literary creations! Popular common games (俗令 / sú lìng) include hand gesture guessing games like rock, paper, scissors and dice guessing games, card games, spin-the-bottle, truth-or-dare, and more.
Of course, fireworks are the ultimate event of a Chinese New Year. So if your living space and local laws allow, bring your guests outside to light firecrackers (safely) at midnight!
Checklist of Items You Need for a Chinese New Year Party
These are the things you will need for this party:
- Chinese New Year decorations
- Ingredients for Chinese New Year-themed foods and drinks
- Music playlist and speakers
- Chinese New Year-themed scented candles
- Any materials needed for planned games and activities
Checklist of Preparations for Your Chinese New Year Party
1. First, confirm that people can come on Chinese New Year’s Eve and/or Day:
- Your guests’ availability ultimately dictates when or if you host any party. Chinese New Year is one of those that you want to have on the night before the new year, but you can also have a party on the day itself if that’s when friends are available. You may just plan things a little differently for a daytime celebration. That’s why it’s important to do this step first!
- Choose guest list and establish minimum number of guests you’d like (to make it worth your effort)
- Six weeks out, confirm guests’ interest in the party and availability on the date(s)
- If your preferred minimum number of guests confirm interest and availability, have them secure the date for your awesome Chinese New Year party!
2. Then, proceed with the fun Chinese New Year party planning:
- Schedule time on your calendar for each step of party prep (securing and/or making food/drinks, etc.). This is especially important when you are learning new recipes. You want to allow ample time for experimentation and failure; that way you can tweak as needed!
- Create invitations with all the details and send them out 4 weeks before the party
- Order any party supplies and decorations 3 weeks out (so they arrive in time to prepare and set up)
- Shop for any party supplies/decorations you don’t order online, as well as non-perishable food/drinks
- In your planned time slots, DIY any party decorations (such as fu cutouts)
- In your planned time slots, acquire perishable food/drinks early enough in advance to prepare in time
- February 2nd – 7th (or eight – three days before the lunar new year): thoroughly clean your house
- In your planned time slots, prepare food/drinks (depending on how long things keep)
- February 8th (or one – two days before the lunar new year): set up decorations
3. Day of party (in your amply planned time slot):
- Prepare any foods/drinks that are too fresh to do any earlier
- Set up any quick/easy last-minute supplies and decorations you didn’t want up before
- Prepare ambience (music/video, candles)
- Get dressed in plenty of red. Gold jewelry is a plus!
- Once everything’s ready, meditate or do any preferred self-care to get in a good head space. You want to be relaxed, energized, and centered for the new year. So take care of yourself and set a positive vibe!
Prepared and Excited for the New Year
There is so much more to Chinese New Year than what we’ve covered here. This is only a brief overview to give you enough ideas to pull off a memorable Chinese New Year party. But you can celebrate as many other Chinese New Year customs and traditions as your party time/space/resources allow! Whatever you do, as long as you put effort into your planning and follow best party practices, you will have a good time and so will your guests. And there is no better way to usher in the new year than that!
Gàn bēi (干杯)!
