Guest Post: Celebrating Eid with toddlers

For us in the US, Eid-ul-Azha was yesterday and to celebrate Eid on the blog, I’m so excited to be able to introduce some beautiful ladies over the coming week. They will all be sharing their thoughts on Eid, their own traditions, how they celebrate it. I think it will be fun to see how alike/different our celebrations are at the end of the day.

Today I’m so excited for this post from a childhood friend, Komal. We go a long way back with our parents knowing each other since even before they were married! It has been absolutely amazing knowing her lovely family over the years. Komal was there at my wedding and luckily I was able to attend hers. Now she is happily settled in Canada with her husband and the little man in their lives, Raffay.  Komal says she got inspired by the blog( yes, this little blog of mine) to make some eid traditions of her own. And she decided to involve her little boy in the Eid preparations from this young age. An idea I absolutely adore.

Here is what she wrote (Her intro made me kind of teary. Not sure how much I deserve her sweet words but well, I love you girl).

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Hello Everyone, I’m Komal, an old family friend of Nataliya. We go back a long way when our fathers used to be in the Pakistan Airforce where we spent and made some fond memories that to this day I hold close to my heart Nataliya, a gem of a person. A true inspiration in every meaning of the word is the reason I am here writing on her blog and being part of a very interesting Eid series!

Lately I had been visiting her blog quite often and loved her approach towards motherhood. Of course, after viewing her blog, I would get this instant feeling to engage in the same activities with my boy – myself being a mom of a very active 21 month old toddler, but would always fall lazy. And I was getting tired of this attitude. So I thought to myself what better occasion to start than the coming Eid ul Adha. It is on Eids when I miss my home the most. My parents, my siblings, the food, the relatives, the whole Eid shabang. . It shows how my parents had made an effort to make those memories beautiful for us! For the past 3 years, I would always reminisce on Eid how wonderful it would have been if I were in Pakistan with my family, enjoying Eid in its full glory. Today the tables have turned, I am a mother who is blessed with a beautiful family and today it’s my turn to start making memories for my family so that one day when my son grows up, he would also think about his Eid celebrations with us in the same loving manner as I am doing today- of course while sipping on a hot cup of tea!

So the week prior to Eid,I took out all my crafts supplies and laid the ideas on the table. From gifts that will be given as Eidi to cousins and friends, to wrapping papers, craft papers, balloons to fairy lights, all were literally laid on the table to inspire us.

I assigned Raffay (my Son) a project that he would do for his grandparents as a gift for Eid.

(all photos are taken by Komal herself)

The last photo is from my iPhone of the gift Raffay made with a personalized gift bag(using paper flowers I made). After a couple of tries on the rough paper I asked him if he would press his palm against the canvas paper and he blatantly refused! Finally after 2-3 failed attempts, I asked him to give me a high five on the canvas, which he did and that's how I got his palm impression :)

I cannot wait for their priceless expressions when Raffay hands them over his artistic creation.

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Isn’t that just lovely? That we can involve our babies, whatever their age, in our Eid preparations and celebrations. I love it!

Thank you so much Komal for sharing a piece of your eid here! She will be back with another post soon!

Don’t forget to check back for more in this series.

Thanks for stopping by!