New Year has come and gone but the Chinese New Year gives us another reason to celebrate.  2010 is the Year of the Tiger.  February 14th is the date that the Year of the Tiger begins.

Paper lanterns are always a great and simple way to decorate.  Use bright colors such as red and orange.  Serve traditional Chinese food and drinks and use chopsticks to eat with and as decorations.

Party Pieces; Long Island Green Tea;  New Year’s Dumpling Delight; Fortune Cookies; Chinese New Year Envelope Place Setting;  Chinese New Year Cupcakes;  My Expression;

Here is another great Chinese themed party from Design Dump that I first found on Kara’s Party Ideas.

Even if you are not from the Chinese culture, it is always fun to celebrate and learn new customs!

We had some friends over for New Year’s Eve and it was so nice to ring in the new year with a great group of people!

Here are some pictures of the table before we had set out all of the food.

(The #3 is missing on the table because it was torn and I hadn’t replaced it yet.)

I set out gold Hershey’s Kisses in this jar.

These fortune cookies were set out in a different area in the kitchen.

This is another table centerpiece that I made using black eyed peas with a candle in the middle.

As a signature drink, we served Blood Orange Margaritas.  You can find the recipe here.  They were very tasty!!!  Of course, we also served champagne later in the night.

I made a Shrimp Cocktail and served it in cocktail glasses.  I also made Creamy Lemon Tartlets that ended up being very tasty!  My very dear friend also did a lot of the food such as a cheesy sausage dip and chocolate fondue.  We had plenty of delicious food for the night!

Here is a look at the table with all of the food.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful start to the NEW YEAR!

This is a centerpiece from our family Christmas.  My dear family friend who did this always does amazing centerpieces and decorations!

Even though this is from Christmas, you could incorporate this into a great centerpiece for a New Year’s Celebration.  Gold and silver are great colors to use for New Year’s so use some of the decorations that you already had out to bring in the New Year.