Gift shops, online stores add delight to Eid spirit

With Qatar readying to mark Eid al-Fitr, shops are offering a range of Eid gifts to help spread joy.

Shops and online platforms are luring buyers with gift ideas that range from chocolates and food hampers to greeting cards.

“Eid is the occasion of fervour and glee, and many express their joy by gifting,” said Tomas Avila, who runs the Royal Classic shop at Matar Al Qadeem. “Ahead of Eid al-Fitr, we have started to see more customers picking gifts for loved ones.”

His shop offers different types of gifts: food hampers, gift boxes, cards, sweet treats, wooden plaques, toys, sweets, cakes, toffees, tea and coffee sets, perfumes, stickers, nuts and thermos flasks.

Sporting greetings and Eid decorations, boxes and trays are available in different sizes as per the requirement and budget.

Prices normally range between QR100 and QR1,000. There are boxes sold for as much as QR10,000.
“We customise the gift boxes after adding the items chosen,” Avila said. “We wrap them beautifully and adorn them with greetings. They can be also bought empty and filled accordingly.”

Made of wood or cardboard, these boxes contain different types of chocolate and candy along with toys, perfumes, oud and greeting cards.

Some customers opt to place cash within the boxes.

Qataris, according to Avila, make up the majority of the buyers, and they start to flock to the shops during the last ten days of Ramadan.

Oriental sweets remain favourites, with many opting to have their boxes filled with date cake, saffron cake, baklava, goulash, Ghariba and basbousa in addition to petit four confectionery and basima.

Some, according to shop owners, go for the mix of oriental sweets with Western flavours.

The shops also feature collections of bouquets of fresh flowers.

Displayed in glitter netting and wrapped elegantly, these bouquets are gifted along with the boxes.

Online platforms are also seeing demand for gift boxes.

Sharmeena Fazil says her page “Our_momentz” is receiving orders to prepare customised gift boxes.
She takes orders both from Qatar and abroad.

“In Qatar, there has been a trend where the residents order gifts to be sent to relatives abroad to share the joy of Eid,” Fazil said. “Personalised boxes are prepared here and shipped.”