What should I do if they are more excited for gifts than meals? 

Parenting Perspective 

It is entirely natural for children to be captivated by the immediate, tangible excitement of gifts. The bright colours and sense of surprise are designed to attract them. Rather than trying to suppress this joy, a parent’s role is to gently expand their child’s understanding of what makes a celebration truly meaningful, guiding them from material delight to the deeper happiness of connection and gratitude. 

Acknowledge the Joy, Then Expand It 

Begin by validating your child’s feelings instead of shaming them. Acknowledging their excitement creates an opening for conversation. You could say, ‘Gifts are wonderful and exciting, and it is perfectly okay to look forward to them’. Once they feel understood, you can gently broaden their perspective: ‘And the beautiful thing about Eid is that the celebration also includes the special food that brings our whole family to the table, sharing love and laughter’. By connecting meals with positive emotions rather than with rules, you help their focus to widen naturally over time. 

Connect Meals to Legacy and Service 

Shift your child’s role from being a passive recipient of food to an active participant in its story and service. When children are given meaningful responsibility, they develop a sense of ownership and pride. 

Ask them to help deliver a tray of food to a neighbour, serve the elders first, or be the one to say the ‘Bismillah’ aloud before everyone begins eating. This involvement helps them see that food is a powerful tool for bringing hearts together, which allows the meal to compete naturally with the excitement of a material gift. 

Create a Ritual of Gratitude 

Instead of banning or downplaying gifts, create a clear and consistent family ritual that balances both aspects of the celebration. You could establish a rule where the family shares its meal first, explaining it in this way: ‘First, we share this beautiful food together to thank Allah Almighty for His blessings. Then, we exchange gifts to thank one another for being a blessing in each other’s lives’. 

This simple sequence teaches a profound life lesson. It places gratitude to Allah at the forefront and models that the joy of giving and receiving among people flows from that initial thankfulness. Over time, this ritual helps gratitude to become the true anchor of their joy.  

Spiritual Insight 

In Islam, true and lasting joy is rooted in gratitude (shukr) and generosity, not in material possessions. A child’s excitement for gifts is an opportunity to teach them where the source of all blessings lies, and how to find a deeper, more enduring happiness in the acts of giving and thanking. 

Allah Almighty states in the noble Quran at Surah Ibrahim (14), Verse 7: 

‘And [remember] when your Lord proclaimed: If you are grateful, I will surely increase you [in favour]; but if you deny, indeed, My punishment is severe…’ 

This verse teaches us that the key to increase—in blessings, in happiness, in peace—is gratitude. Explain to your child that the celebratory meals on days like Eid are a beautiful, collective act of shukr. When the family gathers to prepare, share, and eat a meal while remembering Allah, they are performing an act of gratitude that invites more of His favour. The joy that comes from a gift is temporary, but the barakah (blessing) that enters a home through sincere thankfulness is a divine increase that fills the heart in a way no possession can. 

It is recorded in Sunan Nisai,Hadith 2533, that the holy Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said:  

‘The upper hand is better than the lower hand; the upper hand is that which gives and the lower hand is that which asks.’ 

This profound hadith teaches that the greatest honour and excitement in any celebration lies not in what we receive, but in what we are able to give. Teach your child this principle by actively involving them in acts of generosity. Let them help you wrap and deliver food to relatives or neighbours. Encourage them to be the first to offer a plate to a guest or to serve dessert to their siblings. When children experience the pure happiness that comes from being the ‘upper hand’—the giver—they begin to understand that serving others carries a unique joy that no present can ever match. This understanding helps to balance their perspective, turning Eid into a celebration of gratitude, generosity, and love—gifts of the heart that never fade.