Chinese New Year Archives - Kids 'R' Simple

Floral Garage CNY Hamper {+Giveaway}

This year my Chinese New Year (CNY) preparation starts early. I have already bought all my clothes in one shop during the Christmas season sale. And I got a $100 voucher from the same store to shop for my kids’ clothes at another popular kids’ brand. I am almost done in new year clothes even before 1st day of 2017!

As for spring cleaning, I have started 2nd half of last year and I am pleased to declutter lots of stuff, donating clothes and toys, selling some big items on Carousell, gift hands-me-down to cousins and friends, and throwing off things that we will never touch and not good enough for others.

The next thing on my list will be on CNY decoration. We have the pussy willow on most years just like we have Christmas tree put up every year. This year, we will be getting a fresh flower floral display from Floral Garage. Since the flowers are fresh, we have made arrangement to have it deliver nearer CNY. I am really looking forward to receiving it! Fresh flowers for the New Year will certainly add a festive fresh breath to the house!

Below are some of the flowers that I find from Floral Garage that are quite suitable for Chinese New Year:

song-birds

rami

payet

Floral Garage is an online florist that was set up only in 2015. What you can find in their online shop includes bouquets, flower arrangements for all occasions, hampers, party supplies for birthdays, weddings, tassels, garlands, etc.

They have recently launched their CNY hampers on their website on 9 Jan. There is a variety to choose from of different prices, such as Treasure Chest Hampers, Evergreen (Pyramid) Hampers, Mandarin Orange Hampers and Basket Hampers which includes flower arrangement. If you order before 25 January, you can enjoy storewide 20% off too! For corporate customers, if they register for free for their corporate accounts, they can have 11% off for all their staff.

LIFETIME STOREWIDE DISCOUNT CODE of 15%

Guys, if you are reading this, take this quote down and jot in your phone! This will save you some money for that special occasion!

Just quote:

christyXFG15

…………………………………………………………………….

GIVEAWAY OF A CNY HAMPER WORTH $128!!

Includes:

1 x New Moon Razor Clams 425 g

1 x New Moon Limpets 425 g

1 x New Moon Top Shell 312 g

1 x Hock Hua Dried Mushroom 250 g

1 x Ban Yuan Ginseng Jujube 180 g

CNY Artificial Flower and Decoration Packaging

Complimentary Card Note

Free Delivery

Floral Garage is giving one lucky reader The Imperial Treasure Premium CNY Hamper worth $128 which will be delivered to the doorstep!!

Steps to participate:

1) Leave a comment on the facebook post telling me one bonding activity that you do with your kids for CNY.

2) Tag 5 friends along with your comment.

3) Sign up to follow my blog via email, please refer to sidebar of blog page (on computer) or endbar (on mobile). Do remember to tell me in the facebook comments that you have done this step and your email address so that I can look out for it.

Giveaway ends on 19 January 2359 and will be announced on facebook and this post on 20 January.

Congratulations to Kristina Ongdee in winning this fabulous hamper from Floral Garage! The organizer shall be contacting you for the delivery of the hamper. Thank you everyone for participating! For those who did not win in this round, stay tune for the next giveaway! Happy New Year! 🙂

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. I am glad to be able to reward one of my lucky readers with a giveaway for CNY! Hope you are already preparing well for the festive day! 🙂

How we celebrate our Chinese New Year

Oh, how I love Chinese New Year! It’s my favourite holiday other than Christmas. But the DAY which I love best is Chinese New Year’s eve! This is the busiest day mixed with hard work and happy reunion dinner.

Why hard work? In the days coming up to the Chinese New Year (CNY), we will be busy cleaning up the house. It’s a traditional practice to throw away old stuff and welcome the new things in the new year. A good excuse to give the house a brand new look with some new furnishings and re-decoration of the house. Some of the old stuff in good condition are donated which makes the big clean up a more worthwhile project to work on. Continue reading “How we celebrate our Chinese New Year”

Preparing for the annual BIG house cleaning before CNY

The annual house spring cleaning before CNY (Chinese New Year) is a tradition for the Chinese. My family makes use of this opportunity to clean up the house and throw away old stuff. Even our kids are roped in to help. And they enjoyed cleaning even the corridors! They love the sweeping, scrubbing and playing with water!

Since we have moved to our new house last September, this is the first CNY that we will be celebrating in our new house. Hence it is important to keep this tradition going. But having only left with 10 days to the big festive day, I need to start with a plan to complete this task in the shortest possible time.

1) Target an AREA first (Day 10 – 2 hrs)

This is the one area that I know I will be able to do it fast and tick off the list. It is important to a good start to boost morale. I shall start with the kids’ wardrobe to put away old and outgrown clothes. Next, rotate some older sibling clothes for the younger one. Then move on to the adult wardrobe to clear away old clothes that I will only probably wear in my dreams. The problem with getting rid of my clothes is I always end up thinking one day I will get back into shape and still be able to wear them. This year, the thought of buying more new clothes should see me stave them off into a big bag and donate them.

2) Target room by room (Day 9 to Day 7 – 2 hrs each)

We live in a 4 room apartment. I shall next start with a room that has the most clutters. I know once the cluttering gets wiped out, it will look much obvious with a “Wow!” effect and I will get a greater sense of accomplishment to keep me going!

3) Kitchen (Day 6 – 2hrs)

This is the time of the year to visit the kitchen cabinet. The messy containers, bowls, drawers with lots of messy cutlery, kitchen utensils and tools need better organizing. Old utensils to be thrown and least used to be donated. I will do a re-organization of the way things are kept and add some simple decorations to have a refreshing kitchen for the new year.

4) Bathrooms (Day 5 – 1hr)

Our 2 bathrooms certainly deserve a sparkling clean outlook. I shall start with tidying up my vanity cabinet. This cabinet has been neglected in its tidyness since every morning I do a super quick make-up and throw my make-up kit back in a hurry. Then will come the cleaning and scrubbing of the usual stuff, toilet bowls, basin, mirror and all.

5) Washing (Day 7 and Day 2 – 2hrs each)

A week before CNY, all curtains will be taken down and washed. 2 days before, most laundry will be washed, ironed and packed to the wardrobe so that no clothes will be lying around on the first day of CNY.

6) Living room, the hall (Day 1)

This is the place where guests will be entertained and it’s the most important place to be clean and tidy. However with kids around, its cleanliness and tidyness lifespan will only be a day. Hence it shall be dealt with last, 1 to 2 days before CNY.

7) CNY decorations (This takes more time and shall be scheduled to one of the weekends)

It’s a traditional to decorate the house with festive streamers, ang pao (red packets )made fishes, lanterns (which are simple for the kids to make), and get new pots of plants. CNY goodies like pineapple tarts, cookies, chocolates, bak kwa (roasted flat pieces of honeyed pork), etc will be bought or made for guests who visit.

I look forward to the Chinese New Year since I was a child. I enjoy the busy preparation right up to the day, enjoy eating reunion dinner on Chinese New Year’s eve together with our families, enjoy the visiting of relatives and friends and have them over to our house throughout these 15 days of celebration. Many people would think of CNY to be just a public holiday and would even go overseas to avoid relatives visit and all. But, for me, I would love my kids to enjoy everything about CNY just like me! We shall keep this tradition interesting as long as we can in our family.

Tag: Chinese New Year