Eid Party

We usually throw one Eid party a year for ladies and children but in the last year or two I had found these getting rowdy and moving away from my aim of providing a halal environment for my Muslimah friends to meet, enjoy and in some small way remember Allah (SWT):

Abu Hurairah and Abu Sa`id Al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with them) reported: The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said, "When a group of people assemble for the remembrance of Allah, the angels surround them (with their wings), (Allah's) mercy envelops them, Sakinah, or tranquillity descends upon them and Allah makes a mention of them before those who are near Him.'' ~ narrated by Muslim, Tirmidhi, Ahmad, Ibn Majah, and Bayhaqi

I think between myself and my sisters we wanted to keep this Eid simple. Also, I found that when we have a rowdy Sisters party the kids get forgotten a bit as does any remembrance of Allah (SWT). So this time I decide we would have a smaller kids party.

I managed to keep the cost of the party to about £50 by using things I had in the house and trying to be creative. These bangles were mostly fromLittle Lady. She gets lots from both grandmothers and often outgrows them before she has even wore them (I am not kidding - the bangles I bought her for Eid-ul-Fitr wouldn't fit her by Eid-ul-Adha! This child will be towering over me soon insh'Allah - good job I like the idea of a tall daughter). Other belonged to me and my sisters. I wrapped them in cellophane to keep them together and for guests to take home at the end of the party.

Long-suffering Sister was kind enough to wrap the prizes for the party games including the endless layers required for the pass-the-parcel. We put together a table with the bangles, prizes and another basket with my henna design folder and some henna cones.



I had left over party loot boxes from last year which I dug out and filled with toys, stationary and sweets for the kids and toiletries, hair accessories, sweets, little soaps and candles and all sorts of random bits and peices I have accumulated over the year (I have a box on top of a cupboard and every time I find something I could use I throw it up into the box, when party time comes around, I take the box down and it is jam packed). I like the party boxes as a way to say thank you to guests for coming along, but they are only do-able if I keep the costs down.

I had to have a sweet bar or something similar just to play with the colours, but I wanted to avoid the table full of nothing but sugary sweets and e-numbers which send the kids crazy.

I opted for the kids of fruits and veg that my kids really like - strawberries, rasberries, pomodorino tomatoes, grape and carrot sticks. The first three were not cheap, particularly out of season, but the kids did eat some and I only needed one little box of each. (The pretty white crystallised sweets are sugar crystal lollies which look ever so pretty but just taste like mishri, an old fashioned south asian sweet we used to get as kids).

There were some sweets of course. Little Lady had lots of fun seperating the colours. Those are halal cola bottles in the little bucket of brown sweets, both mine and Little Ladies faves.

I managed to do my henna the night before the party, but Kooky Little Sis was kind enough to the little girls at the party.

The kids were hilarious - we managed to get through two pass the parcels and one game of musical chairs - with lots of sulks and tears - mainly on my kids part I have to admit. After the third game, I gave up and just handed the prizes out.

The food was fab, Umm Imran made a massive dish of tuna pasta, my neighbour bought along a tray of samosa's even though I only gave her about two hours notice for the party (I forgot all about her) and another friend brought a big pot of her delicious chicken biryani. There were also spring rolls, potato salad and slaw, fried chicken, wedges and fries. I would have taken pics but I was too busy serving (okay eating). Kooky has much better pics, if I manage to get them off her I will add to this post.

Girl Who Walks in the Rain gave me the coolest gift. Handmade too - okay maybe not by her, but you can definitely picture me in my black abaya and hijab sauntering down to the canteen with this little number in my hand.

N.B. thanks for the pasta Umm Imran - not only did we enjoy it at the party and parcel some out to friends to take home who wanted to try some, it came in handy the next day for unexpected guests and for one of the kids packed lunch for a trip the day after that - jazakh'Allah-khairun for the barakah filled food!