Eid and Diwali Gifts for a Colleague Who Doesn't Share the Faith

Here's something most guides on this topic won't tell you: Eid and Diwali are kept differently from one family, community and country to the next. A general guide, this one included, has no insider knowledge of your colleague's specific practice, family, or background. Your colleague's own practice is the guide. Pretending otherwise is the mistake worth avoiding.

The honest starting point: a gift from a colleague outside the faith is a bonus, not an obligation. Nobody expects it, and skipping it causes no offence. If you'd like to mark the occasion, a card that names the holiday correctly, said aloud or written down, already does most of the work. 'Eid Mubarak' or 'Happy Diwali, hope you enjoy the celebrations' costs nothing and carries real warmth. A gift on top of that is a genuine plus, not a requirement you're failing to meet.

Think in categories, not specifics. Food, plants, and neutral stationery sit in what's worth calling the shared-human lane: things any adult accepts regardless of belief. Religious or ritual objects sit in a different lane entirely, one that belongs to the colleague's own community rather than to you. A diya bought as a Diwali gift, a prayer mat, or anything carrying religious script looks appropriately festive on a shelf, but it assumes a familiarity with practice that an outsider gift shouldn't claim.

Leather is a quieter version of the same trap. Cow leather carries religious weight for many Hindu families, so a wallet or journal that reads as a safe, professional gift in most contexts becomes a genuine misstep here. None of this needs research into your specific colleague's beliefs. It just means picking categories that stay clear of religious practice altogether.

Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan's month of fasting: a lighter, celebratory occasion built around sweets, family visits, and new clothes. Eid al-Adha, roughly two months later, commemorates a story of sacrifice and centres on charity and sharing meat with those in need, carrying more religious weight and a more solemn tone. For a colleague-level gift, the difference matters less for what you buy than for how you frame it: food remains a safe choice for both, but treating Eid al-Adha as merely festive misses its charitable core. Naming the correct occasion, rather than defaulting to a generic 'happy Eid,' does more work than an elaborate gift ever could.

Diwali runs on customs entirely its own. Family and friends exchange mithai, boxed dry fruits, and sometimes new clothes, rooted in the festival's association with prosperity and renewal. None of that is a template for a colleague-level gesture, and copying it risks looking like an imitation rather than a considered choice. A good-quality box of chocolates or a gourmet pantry item sits outside that tradition entirely, which is exactly why it works: it doesn't compete with what your colleague's family will already be sharing, and it simply says you noticed the occasion.

If you're in Britain, you likely have some precedent to lean on: workplace diversity calendars increasingly mark Eid and Diwali, and colleagues have started bringing in sweets or cards as a matter of course. If you're in Germany or the Netherlands, that precedent barely exists yet, so you're improvising without an established script to copy. That's uncomfortable, but it isn't a sign you're doing something wrong.

In the Netherlands specifically, Eid and Diwali are already lived realities inside Moroccan, Turkish, Indonesian, and Surinamese communities, and many colleagues blend those traditions with the country's own Sinterklaas customs. Your gesture doesn't need to invent a new custom. It just needs to follow the modest, low-key register your own office already uses for other occasions.

The gesture works best when it's handed over simply. 'Happy Diwali, hope the celebrations go well' or 'Eid Mubarak,' said while placing something on a desk, does more than a longer explanation of why you chose it or what you learned while researching. Over-explaining turns a small kindness into a demonstration, and your colleague ends up managing your effort instead of just receiving a gift.

Keep the price modest, in line with whatever else your office spends on colleague-to-colleague gestures, and let the accuracy of naming the right holiday do the work a bigger gift can't.