Ramadan crafts for kids: 12 easy ideas with materials and steps

The best Ramadan crafts for kids are quick, cheap and used during the month: a paper lantern, a tissue-paper jar lantern, a moon-phase tracker, a sadaqah jar and kindness cards for neighbours. Under-fours manage handprint crescents and jar lanterns in 15–30 minutes; children of six and up can build a cardboard mosque or geometric window art in about an hour.

What are the easiest Ramadan crafts for kids?

The easiest Ramadan crafts use card, glue and things already in the recycling, take under 30 minutes, and have a job to do during the month. A lantern lights the iftar table, a jar collects sadaqah, a tracker records the moon. The table below shows the age, time and adult help for each of the twelve crafts on this page.

What do you need for a Ramadan craft box?

Almost everything comes from the recycling bin, a supermarket or a craft shop such as Hobbycraft or The Works. Fill one box the week before Ramadan so no craft needs a shopping trip while you are fasting.

• A4 card in several colours, plus black and white card
• Coloured tissue paper or cellophane
• PVA glue, glue sticks and a cheap paintbrush
• Child-safe scissors and one sharp pair for adults
• Washable poster paint and felt-tip pens
• Star and moon stickers, string or wool, sticky tape
• Clean jam jars with lids, cereal boxes, kitchen-roll tubes, paper plates
• Battery LED tea lights
• Plain flour and table salt (for salt dough)

How do you make a Ramadan lantern?

The quickest lantern is a slit paper tube: one sheet of card, a few cuts and some glue, finished in 20 minutes. The lantern, or fanous, is a Ramadan custom that spread from Egypt across the Muslim world. It is a cultural decoration, not a religious requirement.

1. Paper lantern (ages 4+, 20 minutes)

You’ll need: one sheet of A4 card, scissors, a glue stick, a ruler, stickers.

1. Decorate the card first, while it is flat, with crescents, stars or patterns.
2. Fold it in half lengthways, decorated side out.
3. Draw a line 2 cm from the open edges. Cut slits from the fold up to the line, about 2 cm apart.
4. Unfold the card and roll it into a tube, with the slits running up and down. Glue the short edges together.
5. Press gently on the top so the middle bows out.
6. Glue a 1 × 20 cm strip of card across the top as a handle.

2. Jam-jar lantern (ages 2+, 30 minutes plus drying)

You’ll need: a clean jam jar, tissue paper torn or cut into squares, PVA glue mixed half and half with water, a brush, an LED tea light.

1. Brush a patch of the glue mix onto the outside of the jar.
2. Press tissue squares onto it, overlapping them.
3. Keep going until the jar is covered, then brush one more coat over the top.
4. Leave it to dry for about two hours, or overnight.
5. Add a black card crescent if you like, then drop in the LED tea light.

Which Ramadan crafts teach children about Islam?

The moon tracker, the sadaqah jar and the cardboard mosque each come with a lesson: the lunar calendar, giving, and the parts of a mosque. Say the lesson out loud while you make them.

3. Moon-phase tracker (ages 4+, 30 minutes, then 2 minutes a night)

The Islamic months follow the moon: “They ask you about the new moons. Say, ‘They are signs to mark fixed times for people and for Hajj’” (Qur’an 2:189).

You’ll need: one sheet of black card, a white crayon or chalk pen, a jar lid to draw round, a glue stick.

1. Draw round the lid to make 30 circles in rows of six, and number them 1 to 30.
2. Each evening, look for the moon together after sunset.
3. Colour in the shape you see. On cloudy nights, draw a small cloud instead.
4. Around the middle of the month, the moon is full. Point out that it then shrinks again.
5. On the 29th evening, look for the new crescent that tells everyone whether Eid is tomorrow.

4. Sadaqah jar (ages 2+, 20 minutes)

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was the most generous of people, and he was most generous in Ramadan (Sahih al-Bukhari 6).

You’ll need: a jar with a lid or a shoebox, stickers or paint, a label.

1. An adult cuts a coin-sized slot in the lid.
2. Children decorate the jar and write “Sadaqah” on the label.
3. Agree a rule: a coin each day, or a coin for each chore.
4. On the last weekend of Ramadan, count it together.
5. Let the children choose the charity or the person it goes to.

5. Cardboard-box mosque (ages 5+, 1 hour)

You’ll need: a cereal box, two kitchen-roll tubes, half a paper cup or a ball of scrunched foil, paint, glue, tape.

1. Tape the cereal box shut and paint it. This is the prayer hall.
2. Glue a kitchen-roll tube to each front corner as minarets. Add cones of card on top.
3. Glue the paper cup or foil ball on the roof as the dome.
4. Draw arched windows and a door.
5. Add a card crescent to the dome.
6. Older children can label the parts: minaret, dome, prayer hall and mihrab (the niche that shows the direction of Makkah).

How do you make Ramadan decorations with kids?

A mobile, bunting, kindness cards and a dua jar can all be made from card and string in under 40 minutes each. Hang them where everyone passes, such as the window or over the iftar table.

6. Crescent and star mobile (ages 4+, 30 minutes)

1. Draw a circle slightly off-centre inside a paper plate and cut it out. The leftover rim is a crescent.
2. Paint the crescent yellow or gold.
3. Cut five card stars.
4. Tape a piece of string to each star, cutting the strings to different lengths.
5. Tie the crescent and stars to a coat hanger and hang it up.

7. “Ramadan Mubarak” bunting (ages 3+, 40 minutes)

1. Cut 15 card triangles: one for each letter of RAMADAN MUBARAK, plus one blank for the gap.
2. An adult pencils one letter on each, and children go over it in felt-tip and decorate it.
3. Fold the top of each triangle over a long piece of string and tape it.
4. Hang it across a window or along the iftar table.

8. Kindness cards for neighbours (ages 4+, 20 minutes)

1. Fold an A5 piece of card in half.
2. Draw a lantern or crescent on the front.
3. Inside, write “Ramadan Mubarak” and a short message such as “We are fasting this month and wanted to say hello.”
4. Deliver it with a few dates. It is a friendly way to share Ramadan with neighbours of every faith.

9. Gratitude or dua jar (ages 5+, 15 minutes)

1. Label a clean jar “Alhamdulillah” or “Our duas”.
2. Cut 30 slips of paper for each person.
3. Each evening, everyone writes one thing they are grateful for, or one dua.
4. On the last night of Ramadan, read them all together.

What Ramadan crafts can toddlers do?

Toddlers do best with crafts that use their hands and need no cutting: handprints, sticking tissue paper and stickers. Keep it to 10–15 minutes and do the fiddly parts yourself.

10. Handprint crescent (ages 1–3, 15 minutes)

1. Lay out a large sheet of dark paper on a wipe-clean surface.
2. Brush washable yellow paint onto your child’s palm.
3. Print the hand four or five times in a curve to make a crescent.
4. Once dry, add star stickers.
5. Write their name and the year, and keep it as a record of their first Ramadans.

The jam-jar lantern and the sadaqah jar also work well from age two. Cutting and sticking build the small hand muscles children need for writing, as NHS occupational therapists explain.

Which Ramadan crafts suit older children?

Children of seven and up enjoy crafts with measuring and patience: salt dough that is baked and painted, and Islamic geometric patterns.

11. Salt-dough decorations (ages 4+, 30 minutes plus baking)

You’ll need: 1 cup of plain flour, ½ cup of table salt, about ½ cup of water, cutters, a straw, paint.

1. Mix the flour and salt, then add the water a little at a time until the dough is smooth and not sticky.
2. Roll it out about 5 mm thick.
3. Cut crescents, stars and lantern shapes, and poke a hanging hole in each with a straw.
4. An adult bakes them on the lowest oven setting (about 100°C) for 2–3 hours until hard, or you can leave them to air-dry for a few days.
5. Paint them once they are completely cool, then thread ribbon through the holes.

12. Geometric window art (ages 7+, 45 minutes)

Islamic art is known for geometric patterns. The eight-pointed star is simply two squares, one turned 45 degrees.

1. On black card, draw a 12 cm square. Draw a second 12 cm square over it, turned 45 degrees, with the same centre.
2. Draw a second star 1.5 cm inside the first one.
3. An adult cuts out the inner star to leave a frame.
4. Tape tissue paper or cellophane over the hole on the back.
5. Tape it to a window so the light shines through.

When should you make each craft?

Make the decorations in the week before Ramadan and save the rest for weekends during the month.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Real candles in paper lanterns. Use battery LED tea lights. The London Fire Brigade recommends LED candles for festival decorations.
• Sessions that are too long. Under-fives manage about 15 minutes. Stop while it is still fun.
• Rushing the drying. PVA and salt dough need hours, so start them in the morning.
• Too many crafts at once. Two before Ramadan and one each weekend is plenty.
• Losing the meaning. Talk while you make: why do we fast? Why do we give sadaqah?

Tips for crafting while fasting

Craft at weekends or in the quiet hour before iftar, when everyone needs something calm to do, and keep the craft box ready so set-up takes a minute. Story time fits well while the glue dries. Hudhud, a UK personalised Islamic storybook, puts the child’s name and likeness into the stories of the Prophets Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa, Isa and Muhammad (peace be upon them), and it can be read a few pages at a time.

For simple ways to explain fasting, see our guide to Ramadan with young children. Turn the crafts into a daily countdown with our Ramadan calendar ideas, and for quiet afternoons try our Islamic colouring page ideas.