Lunar New Year: This Year Takes the Snake (Cake)

This time of the year can have a gray dreariness to it, and this winter could win awards for that. Around here, clusters of dirty snow are still melting away, and there is talk of more ice later this week.

The season is certainly not helped at all by the news, which has been particularly heavy. We have so much to pray for these days.

During these winter days, I find myself especially grateful for the Lunar New Year. As parents to two sons who were born in China, we’ve been marking Chinese New Year for several years now. And I can’t remember how we used to get through the winter without it.

The timing of the holiday is always just what I need—a festival that arrives in between the gap of the rejoicing of Christmas and the warmth and light of springtime. Here we are in the in-between times, celebrating with food and loved ones and fun.

Chinese New Year is full of traditions—some of which we fit into the festivities, and some that we don’t. One is cleaning the whole house, which we tend to do right before Christmas instead. Another is buying new clothes, which we don’t usually prioritize. This year, however, I found myself hurrying a child to the shoe store on the eve of the Lunar New Year when we realized he had outgrown the school shoes we bought in August.

“You bought them this past August?” the sales clerk asked, and then she laughed. Because the shoes were so, so small. That’s how quickly teenagers grow and how quickly time passes.

To kick off the new year, we always decorate the house with lanterns and other decorations. This year, I ordered a new decoration to extend across part of the ceiling. What I didn’t realize was that it would come in dozens of pieces with no instructions for how to put it together.

Fortunately, I have a teenager who is rarely stumped by puzzles. He pieced it together and installed it beautifully.

For a few days now, we’ve been handing out red envelopes—hong bao—with scratch-off fortunes for the new year slipped inside. Traditionally you would fill them with money, but the fortunes are so much more fun. I love the look of delight when I surprise someone with a red envelope.

Then, because Chinese New Year is meant to be celebrated with friends and family, we hosted a Chinese dinner at our house. I ordered egg rolls, dumplings, sesame chicken, chicken lo mein, sweet and sour shrimp, pork fried rice, and shredded beef with string beans.

For once, I ordered the right amount of food—with just enough for leftovers the next day. The kind staff at the Chinese restaurant even slipped a container of won ton soup into the box as a treat. They are always so thoughtful.

I had purchased snake slap bracelets for our guests, and I served gummy snakes and Chinese New Year chocolates. After all, when you see Chinese New Year chocolates, you buy them.

But the highlight of our gathering was the cake, as it always is. My friend Katie—my son’s godmother—always makes a spectacular cake in the shape of the zodiac animal we are celebrating this year.

My expectations are rather high because Katie is so incredibly talented and creative, but she blew us away with her Year of the Snake cake.

It was simply magnificent, artistically airbrushed in red and gold, coiled happily on a gleaming gold tray with mice and gold coins at its side.

Katie has made cakes for 11 of the 12 animals over the years, and—in between passing the dumplings and lo mein—we were already discussing the Year of the Horse cake she’ll make for 2026.

But let’s not rush time away too quickly. We still have plenty of the Year of the Snake to enjoy. And, who knows…maybe this will turn out to be a lucky year.

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