A (2:55)

Welcome back. Today I'm talking with Sam Shea, a senior staff writer on the gifting team. Welcome to the show, Sam. Thanks.

C (3:02)

It's good to be here.

A (3:03)

So nice to have you back. And I am definitely happy to be talking to you today because I am one of the biggest culprits of last minute gift giving. What do you think are the most common pitfalls that you often see people fall into when they realize like, oh, they're on a time crunch and they have to get something.

C (3:22)

Now what happens a lot of times is people spend way more than they were planning on to kind of get something quickly make up for the fact that they're late. Kind of panic buying. I remember when I was in high school, my dad went out to the mall on Christmas Eve and bought my stepmother like a mini TV for the kitchen in a crazy panic. It was like the worst gift ever. Actually, their marriage didn't last that long after that. Oh, no, no. That wasn't why, but it was just like such an obvious panic buy. It was like, okay, I'm gonna spend a lot of money on something and that'll make up for the fact that I have not thought about this.

A (3:55)

Yeah.

C (3:56)

So I think that's probably the most common pitfall.

A (3:59)

Okay. But that does lead me to my next question, which is should you kind of expect to pay a little bit more just baseline if you are buying last minute because sometimes you have to pay extra for faster shipping or maybe the smaller and less expensive thing that you wanted again will take too long to get there. Is that something that you should build into your budget?

C (4:18)

Not necessarily. I think the panic buying thing is a trap you can easily fall into or the idea of throwing money at the problem and you know, if you have the money to spend, like, go ahead and drop it on it. Super expensive jewelry or electronics or whatever. But we also have a gift guide, for example, of stuff you can buy at the grocery store that's talking like very last minute, like you're on the way somewhere. But you know, olive oil or fancy chocolate or fancy spices, a nice bottle of booze, teens like a box of scratch off lottery tickets. Just last minute stuff like that. So I don't think you necessarily have to spend more. Although if you are doing it online, you know, there are shipping considerations sometimes depending on where you're getting it from.

A (5:01)

Got it. I like that idea. But the scratch off lottery Tickets, like, I would love that.

C (5:04)

It's so good. Any kid. I mean, technically it's not legal for people under, I don't know, 18, 21, but I've given them to like nine year olds. They love it.

A (5:19)

What are your tips for presenting a last minute gift? To make sure that it still lands as thoughtful or like you put your money into it.

C (5:26)

Right, right, Absolutely. So don't forget the wrapping. Nothing says I forgot you existed like a gift in a paper bag. Presentation means a lot. Most grocery stores, drugstores sell gift bags and ribbon and stuff like that, tissue paper. So go for it. Put a tiny bit of thought into presentation, even if it's last minute. Also, just because you're doing it last minute doesn't mean that all the same rules don't apply of thoughtful gifting. With overnight shipping and subscription services, you can still think carefully about your giftee before pressing the buy button. Not to toot our own horns here at Wirecutter, but like, we do a lot of this thinking for you at the Gifts team and we have a ton of great gifts in our gift guide and we've done a ton of vetting and a ton of searching. So if you're like in panic mode on Christmas Eve or whatever, start there. Like, let us help you. If you're feeling overwhelmed by this and you're out of ideas, we really do try and find a little something for everyone.

A (6:22)

So you're saying Christmas Eve isn't too late to buy a last minute gift, Is that right?

C (6:27)

I mean, Christmas Eve is too late. Oh, I mean, it's not. It's not. This is what I would recommend for Christmas Eve.

A (6:32)

Yeah.

C (6:33)

There's the grocery store drugstore route. If you're doing it in person, if you're doing it online, there's a ton of great subscription services. And while nothing physical is going to arrive at their house by Christmas morning or whatever, they'll get some sort of notification that you've gotten them this subscription service, which I think are way better than gift cards because they're way more specific and you actually get something rather than having to go out to the store and buy something for yourself.

A (6:56)

Yeah. What's one of your favorites?

C (6:58)

Well, I mean, there's magazines, there's books, there's music, there's food of all kinds. There's crafts, puzzles, pet stuff, like kids stuff, beauty products, you name it. So I'm a big audiobook fan, so I love a subscription. Or the way they do it is credits to Libro fm, which is an audiobook platform that I use so you could give someone essentially from one to ten books for them to listen to. And the thing I like most about Libro FM is that it benefits independent bookstores, and you get to pick which bookstore you want. So you could pick your neighborhood bookstore. And every purchase that you or recipient makes from here on out will benefit that bookstore. If you have somebody who's into vinyl, there's a really good vinyl subscription and it's actually called vinyl. And you put in your musical preferences and they'll pick out from one to three albums and send them to your recipient. And I did it as a test, like, oh, let's see how good they are at this. And they were so good. They nailed me. It was like two albums that I loved and one album that I'd never heard of. So perfect combination.

A (7:56)

I love that. It's so fun. And it also, again, like, it really shows that you know the person that you're gifting to and you're not just throwing stuff at the wall.

C (8:03)

Yeah, we have a ton on our site and there's just really, like, no matter what your person is into, from their dog, to golf, to travel, you will be able to find a subscription service.

A (8:13)

So, Sam, right now we're kind of in the middle of Hanukkah, and we're about like a week away from Christmas. What is the cutoff point? When is it become last minute to too late?

C (8:25)

I would say with both of those holidays, once they're over, it's too late. So for Christmas, if you have plans to see someone like within the week after Christmas, great, give them a gift. But otherwise that ship is sailed. And same with Hanukkah. You really only give Hanukkah gifts if you're invited to somebody's home for the holiday or if they're immediate family. So once the holiday's over, it's over and you're gonna have to wait till next year.

A (8:50)

So are there any categories that you would definitely steer people away from when they're panic buying last minute?

C (8:56)

I just really want to steer people away from dropping a bunch of money on a last minute panic buy. It's better to give somebody a heartfelt card or a box of chocolates than some expensive thing they don't really want.

A (9:08)

A kitchen TV maybe?

C (9:09)

Right, Kitchen tv. Exactly.

A (9:12)

So, Sam, do you have any physical locations if you're gonna go try and find something in a brick and mortar store? Do you have any places you said, like the grocery store that you think are pretty reliable for a last minute gift? And do you have any places online that you would say people should check for fast shipping?

C (9:29)

Again, grocery store, drugstore, big box stores, you know, those are going to be open sometimes on Christmas morning, but definitely on Christmas Eve. So there's a place in the real world in terms of online. I mean, Amazon, you know, has really saved a lot of procrastinators in this situation. Just make sure that it is something that is going to ship overnight and they are really busy during the holidays. So even though they do ship overnight, I would try and give yourself at least two days if you're going to do that and use that prime account.

A (9:59)

I have gotten burned by a promised two day delivery that ended up showing up like a week late.

C (10:05)

And another thing, like a lot of independent brick and mortar stores are also going to be open on Christmas Eve. Bookstores are generally open that day. You know, some boutiques are open record stores like they want your business and they'll be open on the 24th, so check those out too.

A (10:29)

I think one of the broader themes of last minute gift giving, well, I don't want to overgeneralize, but I do feel like sometimes it's hard because either you've given everything that you could ever think of and you feel like you're out of good ideas, or you're just not sure. You don't know what the person likes, you don't know enough about them and it kind of gets you into this procrastination mode and you don't even know where to begin for either of those scenarios. Where do you suggest as people begin to kind of get the ideas rolling again?

C (10:56)

So, you know, buying a gift for somebody you don't know that well and maybe it's a professional relationship and you don't know them that well personally. I mean, that's a really tricky situation because you can't fall back on the like, you know, what are their favorite things to do or whatever. Although there's no such thing as an absolutely universal gift, there are some gifts that will appeal to a very broad spectrum of people. And I think like olive oil, candy. Seriously though, I mean, who could not use a bottle of nice olive? We have some of those more general gifts along with the very specific interest specific or hobby specific gifts. You know, sometimes it is a candle, not for everyone, but that is a pretty general universal gift for a lot of people. Olive oil, a bottle of champagne. Again, none of these will meet every single person's exact personality and need, but they're pretty good.

A (11:46)

I love that. And what if you just feel like you know this person but you've just given them everything cool and there's nothing left.

C (11:51)

I think that's a good place for personalized gifts to come in. Although now we're not talking last minute. So if you are going to give someone something personalized, you're going to have to think ahead a little bit.

A (12:01)

So Sam, I know you've mentioned these guides and all of wirecutters. Last minute gift guides or just gift guides in general are so good. Could you tell me a couple other things that you want to highlight that you really love?

C (12:11)

Sure. I mean I wrote a ode to these watercolor paints on wirecutter because I love them so much. But the Kuretake Ganzi Tombi watercolors and those ship from Amazon. They're beautiful. Beautiful like creamy Japanese watercolor paints. For anyone who has that inclination, we have this wonderful little glass teapot, the Hario Chacha Kiyoso Maru teapot, also a Japanese item. It's 20 bucks from Amazon, ships overnight. So if you have a tea lover, there's our favorite glare up slip on slippers. Those shipped from Amazon and they are a wire cutter favorite both from our readers and our staff. Everybody has these and loves them. There's an amazing pocket knife. There's a an incredibly nice De Elite umbrella. I have this umbrella. It makes me feel like Fred Astaire. It will never break. It will last your whole life. It's expensive but it will ship overnight from Amazon and it's such a quality item.

A (13:07)

It really does sound like things that make great gifts can also make great last minute gifts. It doesn't really matter as long as you give yourself a reasonable amount of time, maybe like two days to get it. The chances are you'll be able to find something on one of your gift guides and be able to buy it. And it will work for your last minute gift?

C (13:24)

Absolutely. I mean with overnight shipping and everything that we have right now, there is no difference between a great gift and a last minute gift. Try and give yourself two days. Okay?

A (13:34)

Minimum. Yeah, got it. Well, thank you so much for joining me, Sam. It was lovely to have you on talking about last minute gifts.

C (13:43)

Thank you for having me. Always fun.

A (13:50)

As always. We'll drop links to all the things I talked about with Sam today in the show notes and you can find tons more gift coverage on our website nytimes.com Wirecutter there's even a guide all about last minute gifts. Check it out. That's it for our special series about gifts. Thank you so much for listening. And happy holidays.