DEARBORN — As much as parsley and tomatoes match traditional Christmas colors, giant bowls of tabbouli are not the only holiday trimmings found in the average Arab American household this season. Both Christian and Muslim Arab Americans decorate for Christmas with the best of them. The East Dearborn home of Haysam and Kelly Sleiman, who are Muslim, is lit up and complete with lawn reindeer, a Christmas tree and handmade Eid Mubarak and Merry Christmas signs all over the inside and outside of the home.

“Christians and Muslims, we have things in common and we should join with them and celebrate,” said Kelly Sleiman. “Jesus is a prophet. It’s to celebrate his birthday.” It doesn’t really matter, she said, that Muslims don’t necessarily believe Jesus was born on December 25. “The Islamic calendar, of course, is totally different, but we might as well join everyone else and celebrate,” Sleiman said. The Sleimans and their three children were also celebrating Eid al-Adha, which fell just before Christmas this year. “We want our kids to have a broad outlook for all religions, and have respect for all religions,” said Sleiman as her children played with a Christmas piñata on their living room floor.

The piñata was part of five year-old Mohamed Sleiman’s kindergarten ‘Christmas Around the World’ lesson at William Ford Elementary. Mohamed made some of the decorative signs in the home, one of which included images of a Christmas tree and the Ka’aba side by side. “Nahna, we celebrate everything for the kids,” said Haysam Sleiman.  “It’s good to be open… and you have to follow the culture that you live in.” Sleiman owns Motown Kabob, a restaurant in Detroit’s New Center area. He had a mural of Santa Claus shaving shawarma meat off of a skewer painted on a wall inside the restaurant. Kelly Sleiman said Haysam, born in America to immigrants from south Lebanon, never got to celebrate Christmas himself as a kid. “He didn’t have it and he always wanted it. He got a taste of it at school and then when he went home, it was nothing.  It was something that he missed out on,” she said. “So for Eid and everything we try to make it really exciting for the kids, so they have something to look forward to.” Haysam Sleiman said he and his wife decorate their home and celebrate every holiday that comes along, “so that the kids are not deprived,” and so that the children don’t have to ask ‘how come those kids get gifts and we don’t?'” “Kids have to experience everything,” he said. “For all the eids and all the prophets’ birthdays, they get gifts… You decorate for all religions. For all events.” “For Easter, we hide eggs in the backyard.”