HOLIDAYS
HOLIDAYS
Read on for details about how to prepare food, drinks, decorations and favors for your daughter's China Themed Birthday.
Little girls will enjoy the exotic nature of the dishes, but take care to order menu items that are not overly spicy. Set the food out on large plates so that everyone can share the meal family-style. Great child-approved Chinese foods include:
Appetizer Options:
- Spring Rolls
- Potstickers
- Rangoons
Entrée Options:
- Orange Chicken
- Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Mandarin Chicken
Side Dishes:
- Chow Mein
- Fried Rice
- Steamed Rice
- Mixed Vegetables with Teriyaki Sauce
Provide pre-tethered chopsticks so that girls can try their hand at picking up food the traditional Chinese way. See our Crafts section for easy how-to instructions on how to use chopsticks.
China Themed Party Drinks
One of the coolest non-alcoholic drinks from China is Boba, which is a mixture of tapioca, milk and tea. Not only does Boba come in a rainbow of flavors, they also look really cool, which definitely makes them more appealing to kids.
If you don't have a place that sells Boba drinks near you, Easy Recipes has a great tutorial recipe for creating the drink at home. Plenty of pictures and detailed instructions make it a cinch to try making your own Boba for the party.
Besides Boba drinks, serve a few different types of iced tea in pretty punch bowls. Sweeten the iced tea with a little bit of sugar, and add a few floating pieces of fruit (raspberries and strawberries work best, and girls will love the pink color).
Tea is practically the national drink of China, so serving a variety of teas at your China themed party is a must.
Here's a list of websites you can order the giant fortune cookie from:
Alternately, you can incorporate the fortune cookie idea into your dessert without sacrificing delicious cake with Fortune Cookie Cupcakes.
How to Make Fortune Cookie Cupcakes:
1. To create them, bake a batch of cupcakes in your daughter's favorite flavor and frost generously.
2. Then, pick up a bag of fortune cookies with your Chinese food order.
3. In the center of each cupcake, place a fortune cookie for decoration. You can also add piped frosting designs to the cupcakes for a pretty touch.
China Themed Decorations
If you live in a metropolis, the easiest way to get traditional Chinese decorations is to head to your local Chinatown.
Purchase paper lanterns, colorful kites, delicate Chinese paper cutting banners and bright paper parasols to create a spectacular party setting.
Paper Lanterns:
If you are holding the party in the spring or summertime, string the lanterns outdoors from trees. If the birthday party is indoors, place small hooks in the walls and tie string onto the hooks to string lines of lanterns back and forth across the room.
Square or rectangular lanterns can also be placed on the food table with candles inside for a soft glow.
Butterfly Kites:
Hang butterfly kites from lighting fixtures so that they flutter above the dining and living area. Or take down the artwork and photos currently hanging on your walls and use the nails to hang the butterfly kites flat against the wall.
For outdoor parties, hang the butterflies from trees and fences.
Paper Parasols:
If you can find both, purchase the large paper parasols and the small mini drink parasols. Hang the large parasols upside down at varying heights from trees to create a colorful canopy over the party area. Have a few extra lying around for the girls to play with as well.
Place small paper parasols in Styrofoam balls to create bright decorative balls for the table. Also place the parasols in a piece of fruit to put on the rim of a drinking glass to add a spark of color and excitement to the iced tea beverages.
- Remove wooden chopsticks from paper sleeve.
- Fold paper sleeve over and over in a 1/3 of an inch width until you reach the end of the paper.
- Stick the folded paper between the two chopsticks, about an inch down from the top (the thickest part of the chopsticks).
- Wrap the rubber band around the paper and chopsticks until the piece of paper is secured in place. Now all kids have to do is squeeze the chopsticks to pick up the food! If you're still lost, check out the video above for help.
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