19608

Oriental Party -8yr- Silk Pajama Favors

March 2009

Bonnie in Freehold, New Jersey USA

Honorable Mention

Oriental themed party for 8 year old girl.  For our daughter's 8th birthday we choose an Oriental theme.  

Invitations:  I used purchased invitations in the shape of kimono.  We wrote in Chinese characters each girls name on envelope and hand delivered these to each guest. Along with invitation, each girl was presented with a traditional Chinese silk pajama set to be worn to party.  

Decorations:  WE choose to use red and gold as our color scheme in keeping with traditional oriental colors.  We purchased most of our decorations from an online party suppler which would have normally been used for Chinese New Year we simply adapted to fit our needs.  We hung string decorations with Chinese characters from the opening to our dining room creating a curtain that the girls would walk through in order to enter party room. 

We displayed Geisha jointed cut outs on the columns that flank the opening to our living room as well as a poster of Chinese characters on our front door to greet our guests.  Several Chinese dragons were hung from the ceiling along with Chinese characters in red and gold to complete the look.  The table was set up with bamboo adorned place mats.  I found great wooden utensils at an import store and used them instead of plastic.  The paper goods were Chinese in design as well.  Gold napkins were used in red paper cups,t cdhe center piece was a waterfall spray in silver which I adorned with small geisha cut outs that were taken from the packaging of paper goods and cut outs we purchased.  To complete the atmosphere we played a traditional Chinese CD in the background.  

Activities:  A variety of arts and crafts were set up on a folding table set up in our foyer for the girls to complete.  These included, painting paper lanterns with water colors, making a poster with girls names in Chinese Characters and a paper dragon painted red and outlined in glitter glue color of girl's choice.  Mobiles were made from a kit purchased from an online store.  The mobiles had dragons and Chinese buildings hanging from them.   *an optional activity could be pin the fan on the Geisha Costumes:  Each attendee wore the traditional Chinese silk pajamas that had been presented to them with their invitation.  These outfits were adorable and made for great photo ops. Party Snacks:  We kept with the theme in our menu as well.  We served Chinese take-out.  Fried Rice, Spare ribs, Lo Mein, Chicken and Broccoli and fortune cookies.

Cake:  I made a two tiered red velvet cake iced in white icing and decorated with pink edible confetti.  This was the only item at the party that didn't follow our color scheme but my daughter loves pink so I compromised.  The cake topper was a small Chinese take out box which I iced in white icing and drew on the Chinese characters for happy birthday in black icing.  

Favors:  Favors for this party were all of the arts and crafts the girls made during the party as well as the silk pajamas (these pajamas were very inexpensive and purchased at our local mall from an Oriental import store.  The girls also received Chinese lucky charms and chop sticks for their hair.  These were also purchased at our local mall. 

The goody bags were white pastel colored take out boxes we adorned with Chinese characters for Happy Birthday. (I looked up how to write these characters online). We purchased these at our local craft store.   The party was great fun and the girls really loved the crafts.  As this was a group of 7 and 8 year old girls we were able to do mostly quiet activities that required the girls to be creative.  This was one of my favorite parties to host and prepare for. 

My daughter and I had so much fun together gathering all of the decorations and decorating the cake.   * Because we kept the number of attendees to 7 girls in total, we were able to provide a high quality party with a few extra special favors.  Whenever we plan a party I consult with my kids to get a general idea of what they would like and then we discuss what is most important to the honoree, with these things in mind we are able to create a one of a kind experience for our kids and a relatively low cost. 

We strive to stay at or under our party budget and set realistic goals for each party in regard to our dollar figure.  All of the things provided at this party were purchased on line or at our local mall at a great discount.  I waited until things were on sale and or used online coupons to help with cost

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