Celebrate the Chinese New Year with Your Family

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Happy Monday everyone! Today I wanted to share a little idea with you that I’ve started doing that will help make dinners more fun for the kids.

You guys know that I’ve always wanted to travel, but that part of my life just hasn’t happened yet – so I’m always daydreaming and looking around in magazines and online on websites and other blogs for visual inspiration, and a thought dawned on me – what if I held a themed dinner once a month?

One night a month we will pick a country and or special event and have special food along with fun facts that we can teach the kids and discuss as a family.

The Chinese New Year is beginning February 19th and I thought February would be a wonderful month to showcase China – and touch base with a few of their holiday traditions, so – we had dinner.

We ate some of our favorite (American) Chinese food and I purchased some Tai Pei® Egg and Spring Rolls – they are authentic Asian appetizers and are ready to serve in just a few minutes. They come in a variety of delicious flavors like hearty chicken, pork and shrimp and are filled with fresh-cut vegetables. There’s a coupon out right now on their Facebook page (until all offers are claimed) under the Red Envelope tab – so I stocked up on a few. They come with their own dipping sauce and Wayne absolutely loved it (and he doesn’t normally praise many things!).

When setting up the table I kept in mind things the things that I have read that are Chinese New Year traditions, such as Red is the main color used to decorate homes, streets, and buildings. So I made sure our table cloth fit in with the theme. You could get as fancy and elaborate decorating as your time allows, but I chose to keep it fairly simple this time – I bought some festive napkins, grabbed a few chopsticks, and then decorated little vases with gold glitter tape to tie in with the celebration. While eating dinner we lit candles as well.

For the fact sheet, I kept it pretty simple as well and typed up a few interesting key things that I learned about The Chinese New Year and used the fact sheet as a conversation starter so we could talk in more detail about certain ceremonies and/or traditions while we enjoyed our own “version” of a New Year’s Eve meal with our Tai Pei® Spring Rolls.

We read about the tradition of red envelopes – which are filled with an even number of money and given to children and seniors as gifts, and the kids began asking different questions, which lead to Wayne telling fond stories of the time he visited China himself.

Sunday night dinner was a success last night and I’m already thinking of themed meals for the rest of the year – be on the lookout for more ideas!

Remember that this year the Chinese New Year begins this Thursday, February 19th – and there’s still a coupon you can use for the Tai Pei® Egg and Spring Rolls next time you’re in Walmart! (They are found in the frozen entrée section).

The Chinese New Year is a fun way for everyone to celebrate and wish their family good fortune –and eat tasty food! Do you have any other ideas to make a dinner like this special?

~Melissa