Eid falling so close to Christmas has been strange this year. This year’s celebratory season is also the first that my four year-old daughter has really got i.e. there are presents to be had.  This means, it’s the beginning of the Eid versus Christmas competition.  I need strategies peoples!!!

It started with my mum ringing up and asking whether we minded if she cooked roast pork and served ham at the Christmas lunch we are expected to attend.  *Sigh*.  It’s bad enough she talks to Yasmin about Santa, which I try and offset by getting home and saying “darling, you know Santa isn’t really real, Grandma just likes to pretend it’s real.

This is the perenial problem for Muslim converts I think.  At least because my parents are Baha’i I don’t have the alcohol worry. I’m okay with visiting family and exchanging presents to demonstrate filial love, but sitting down to a table with a big ‘ole roast hunk of swine in the middle is just too much. 

At first I tried saying “mum do you mind if I bring something for us to eat” but we’ve compromised and I’ve bought a leg of lamb and two chickens from the halal butcher for her to cook instead of the pork, and I won’t groan too much when she talks about Santa on the actual day.

(And for non-Muslims reading this, I’m allowed to complain as my parents - being Baha’is - aren’t even supposed to celebrate Christmas!!!)

I’m not too fussed if others want to celebrate Christmas, but I want the two Eids to be the special festivals for my daughter — so I have decided I have to make them special. No point grumbling about all the Santas, tinsel and Carols on the telly, in the shops, and practically everywhere you go, they are here to stay.  So I have to do what I can to make Eid really special for Yaz.

So I bought her favour this year.  A trip to Toys-R-Us saw me trying to capture the essence of my own Christmas mornings.  For someone who rails against materialism, I must confess it did feel like capitulation.  I tried to talk about Prophet Ibrahim and the symbolism of Eid, but at the moment, she just knows “presents”.

Next year I’m going to be well prepared insha’Allah .  I figure if we do some talking about the Eid stories well in advance of the actual Eids, write up recipes and prepare special foods for Eid, send out Eid cards, decorate the house, and most importantly, visit the masjid lots - I might have a running chance against Christmas.