Creative Ways to Celebrate Lunar New Year At Home This Year

Lunar New Year is a perfect excuse to celebrate! The holiday often features parades, fireworks, and traditional ceremonies. This year, create your own celebration at home with our decoration ideas, party favors, and three delicious Chinese recipes. Oranges symbolize good fortune and wealth, so orange juice is a great base for a festive cocktail.

Start sipping: The tangerine juice in this cocktail recipe will bring you luck and wealth, according to Chinese tradition. Garnish the rum-spiked refresher with juicy pineapple spears.

These juicy steamed dumplings are a luscious start to your meal. Topped with a spicy ginger sauce, they're an irresistible combination of savory and tangy.

Dress up classic fried rice with frozen edamame, ginger, and sesame oil. This easy Chinese New Year recipe can be dressed up with spicy crushed red pepper and freshly sliced green onions.

Test Kitchen Tip: Use a wok ($40, Williams Sonoma) to get this fried rice extra crispy.

For a traditional Chinese New Year dinner, serve chicken, which is thought to be the everyman's meal. Our version of Szechwan chicken features spicy chile-garlic sauce, precooked brown rice, and honey-roasted peanuts.

Test Kitchen Tip: Make this Chinese New Year recipe up to three days ahead and store it in the refrigerator.

Soba noodles are a Chinese dish that are traditionally served at the start of each new year. It's said that the longer the noodle, the longer the life of the person eating them—so it's thought of as good luck to serve this dish as part of a Lunar New Year celebration.

Related: 19 Delicious Recipes to Serve for Lunar New Year