So in parts of the world other than America (where I grew up) there is a Ramadan tradition of lighting and decorating with Fanoos, or lamps.

In parts of the world, like America (where I grew up) there is a tradition of crafting things for no reason other than the fact that you can, yay!

So here is our Ramadan Fanoos How-To, especially useful if you happen to be living in parts of the world where they do sell flat-packed meatballs and Swedish furniture in gravy, but not Ramadan decorations.

You will need:

• Ikea lanterns
• Whatever nail polish your children haven’t painted their teeth with yet
• Sparkly bits

You will then:

• Exercise saintly levels of maternal patience while the children paint the tables, floors, hands, fingers, and glass windows of the lamps.
• Remember to cover the table, so start the craft over on a plastic sheet.

• Tell children to paint the glass as many times as necessary to achieve desired opacity (or the lack thereof) as cheap nail polish can be frustratingly invisible when applied on glass.

You can use:

• random sparkly bits and notions to jazz the lamps up. We used sequins and they stuck well enough on to the wet nail polish.
• caution: The top part of the lamp will heat up once a candle is lit inside, we kinda regret using nail polish on the top section, as it smells.  We put crystals there too, and they melted. They’re not there anymore.
• an electric tea-light instead of a real candle in case you don’t want to deal with heat or children burning themselves whenever they see they pretty fanoos and say ooooooooh!
• Aaaaaah!
• MashaAllah!
• Ramadan Kareem. 🙂

Related posts:

Ramadan Reconcilliation Ramadan Kareem! Ramadan: Day One! Ramadan or the Lack Thereof, Part I