Are you celebrating Chinese New Year, or does your family just love to eat Chinese take out food? Either way, with a few festive props you can turn takeout night into a Chinese takeout party to remember. No cooking required!


Be bold

Traditional Chinese décor features a lot of bold colors such as reds and yellows, so play it up with that theme. Now’s the perfect time to break out the mustard-yellow napkins and bring back your red Christmas napkins, or you could always pick up a few colorful paper napkins at the store. Less washing later!

To go all out for your Chinese takeout party place setting, grab red takeout boxes from the container store. We used ours for place cards by attaching each guests name to a card on the handle and setting them on their plate. These can then be used to take home any leftovers after the party is over-because we all know everyone will want more Chinese food about an hour after saying they’re too full to eat another bite.


Go natural

Other common motifs inside Chinese restaurants are stylized depictions of flowers, landscapes and animals. We used a re-purposed gold fish shower curtain—I know, right?-to decorate the table.  Look around the house to see what you might have that will work.  You could just as easily sprinkle some collectable animal figurines or floral-painted teacups to achieve the same effect.


Stick it to ’em

Be sure to set out chopsticks at each place setting, even if you have no idea how to use them. Seeing a table set with chopsticks instantly adds a touch of the exotic. We placed ours on top of the napkins and used a decorative tie to cinch the napkin around the chopsticks.


Start with dessert

Create fun place cards or party favors using fortune cookies. You don’t have to order the custom kind! Just use a label maker, or simply print the names of your guests and then cut into strips of paper. Place each label part of the way into the fortune cookie and set on each plate.


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