Ramadan decorations

The previous post made me realize how excited I am for Ramadan and I started looking for some decoration ideas that I can start working on.  Even though there are still couple months to go, I find myself always unprepared so inshaAllah this year, I will be ready!

Having candles in a glass jar, especially that has a middle eastern look to it, will add a special warmth to your place and add a little festive touch without any extra work.  I found these images online but I have seen such candles in pretty much any Target, Macy's, even Walmart.  

These cookies will be a nice addition to your Iftar table or break fast at your local masjid.  This recipe makes a lot and they taste so yummy!

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:
2 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 Sticks of butter (1 Cup), softened
2 1/2 Cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preparation:
Blend flour, baking soda, and baking powder together. In another bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Add the egg to the butter and sugar and mix well. Add vanilla extract. One cup at a time, add the flour mix into the wet ingredients. Mix until it's nice and doughy.

Flour your hands, and roll dough into pieces about the size of a golf ball. Squash it down and shape it into a crescent, and then flatten it down. Another option is to roll the dough out and cut it with crescent cookie cutters -- be sure to flour your cookie cutters before you use them, or the dough won't come out as well.

Bake on an ungreased baking sheet at 350 for about ten minutes, until the sides begin to brown.

Make icing with the following ingredients:
1 8-oz block of cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
4 Cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. milk

Blend the cream cheese and butter together, and then gradually add in the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla and mix well. Blend in the milk (add a little more if your icing doesn't seem creamy enough). After your moon cookies have cooled, Use this to frost them.

Optional: add silver sprinkles to your cookies while the frosting is still wet, or dip half the cookie in chocolate and frost the other half in white.

(courtesy of http://howtolivelikeanomaniprincess.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html)

Such a cute and unique way to have a little goody bag for your kids to support their fast.  If your children are still too small to fast (like mine), then I think I will be using them to store some candy and a little story about Prophet (SAWS).  This way they will excited for breaking fast and understand this month is unique and special.  

There is wonderful website, where you can find all different types of very pretty and modern things for decorations, but you can also make them yourself. Nowadays, they have all that equipment available at stores such as Michael's, Hobby Lobby, etc.  If you have christmas lights, they can be used in a beautiful way to decorate as well.  You can spell something on the wall or simply spread them on the ceiling to look like night sky. 

Its also very useful to use your kids.  They will make a mess but they will surely have fun and create something unique! It will also teach them that this is OUR special holiday since living here in the US it is very hard sometimes to sustain your Islamic identity.  

Here is a poster I made for this year.  I bought the poster at Hobby Lobby for $4.50 and it has a linen print on it so it looks like canvas, cut out the letters from scrapbooking paper I bought at Target and added some stars with glue and glitter.  Balloons are my kids favorite so we have to have them in any decoration.