And that brings up the question of last-minute gifts. If you order in-stock items right now, and pay for the one-day shipping inside the US, then Amazon says it will get there in time for Christmas. But that’s today. Sometime Saturday, even that stops working. But that doesn’t mean that you’re out of options.Of course, there’s the tried-and-true route of getting a gift certificate, which you can email to the recipient or print out and hand to them. That works nicely, and can be done as late as the day itself. Very flexible, just a little bit impersonal.

But here’s a possibly better idea: pre-order them something like the Willie & Joe books, something coming out next year, and then give them an email (if they’re distance) or a printout that shows a picture of what you’ve bought them. The advantages of this are:

• You can get them something personal and specific
• You can be sure that they don’t already have it, and then no one else has gotten it for them, because it doesn’t actually exist yet
• You lock in Amazon’s cheapest price. At the moment on the book set, that’s a savings of about $24… but if Amazon’s price goes down at any time before the book is released, you get that lower price, even if the price later goes up again.
• No need to pay for rush shipping – in fact, with Free Super Saver Shipping, there’s no need to pay for shipping at all!
• It’s kind of like you’re giving two gifts. Your recipient will think you’re wonderful and generous when they get your note or card. Then, months later, when the gift itself is received, they think wonderful things about you again. In fact, since they’re getting your gifts when they’re not in the midst of the surge of gifts, it will even further emphasize your generosity. Big gift-giving hero you!

Barring any major Peanuts news, I expect this will be the last blog post before Christmas day is here. So, whether or not you’re celebrating, I hope you have a fine day, a fine set of days, a fine New Year, and a fine and long life!