4 last-minute Eid gift ideas you can't go wrong with

If the spectre of malls haunts you in your sleep, here are some easy solutions

There are three types of shoppers. There is the laser-focused Shopper A, who conducts her shopping solo with military precision, earmarking her exact shopping route within the mall. She is merciless and will push past you to achieve her goal, because she has no time for the fools in her immediate vicinity.

Then there is the whimsical Shopper B, who conducts a thorough survey of the entire mall and visits every shop, threading each item before migrating back to the first shop. She moves at sloth velocity, oblivious to the fiery rage of Shopper A trapped behind her and three friends on the escalator. 

The last kind is the one who hates malls and people, for in the week leading up to Eid, the tide of humanity turns an ordinary shopping space into the wildebeest stampede last seen in The Lion King. If you belong to this category but still yearn to give your loved ones something they haven’t already got, here are four effortless ideas to put a smile on someone’s face. 

Scented candles

Ranging from rose to jasmine to vanilla to coffee, anyone with a functioning nose will appreciate one of these. The coffee scents will fill your home with the aroma of a cafe or a luxury international airport, transporting you to another world. The floral scents mimic the local flowers that bloom only in Pakistan, far outclassing air freshener cans.  

Spa vouchers 

On the heels of a hectic Ramazan, a manic Eid shopping spree, and a killer Eid dawat, a spa voucher is the best thing you can give someone. After catering to everyone else over Eid, your friend will appreciate someone else pampering them. Tell said friend to ignore the spa woman’s unsolicited comments on frown lines and tense shoulders, and make sure she does not take a spouse or brother or other escort impatiently tapping their feet in the car. 

Salon vouchers 

In the same vein as spa vouchers, a salon experience is a personalised gift that rivals any high-ticket clothing item. Having spent a fortune on getting their Eid look right, your friend will appreciate a trip to the salon that will not cost them an arm and a leg and a kidney. 

Online gift cards

For the quickest in-an-out mall trip, avoid staring at ready-made clothes with their perplexing colours and bamboozling patterns, and forget fretting over whether you’ve got the right size. Pluck up a gift card from any clothes store and give someone else the freedom to get something they truly love. Most importantly, you will transfer the headache of shopping directly onto someone else. It is a win-win.

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