Last Minute Gift Guide: For the Whole Family!

It's a little too late to be posting a Gift Guide for the 2017 holiday season, but then again, it's a little late to be buying presents, too... but if you're as much of a slacker as some of the other people in my family, it's never to late to be buying presents (even Christmas Eve is up for grabs!). I mean, anything's game when Amazon Prime has free two-day shipping, am I right?

So, I thought I'd take inspiration from some of my family's procrastinator habits, and give you a few last-minute gift guides, perfect for some last-minute gift purchasing. I can't buy them for you, but I'm sure Siri can find a route between you and this Secret Santa party that hits up Barnes and Noble along the way.

ULTRA DAD

He owns every Jimmy Buffet album ever released, plus a couple of the "Greatest Hits" ones, too. His wardrobe is chock-full of khaki pants, and he's got at least one pretentious-sounding liquor in his cabinet that he swears he loves, but only sips on special occasions. He's a self-described tech dork, but gets thrown off by his kids' obsessions with the newest app. There's no one you'd trust to make an inappropriate joke, or a better Bailey's-splashed cup of coffee, than this guy.

• make his morning cup of joe a little more eco-friendly, with a refillable Keurig cup, and a pound of his favorite Starbucks roast 
• feed his Skynet conspiracy theories with The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World, by Pedro Domingos 
• get him giggling to the stories of a fellow dad, with Dad is Fat, by Jim Gaffigan

FOODIE MAMA

She swears she doesn't want anything this year, but you know that's not true. In fact, the only reason you've been putting off buying presents for the culinary queen in your life for so long, is because you've finally accepted that it's impossible to package a trip to France in something that will fit beneath a Christmas tree. You can't just pick up any regular cookbook, because she's either sure to already have it, or hate it on sight, and there's no bouncing back from getting her a spiralizer or novelty-niche veggie peeler for Christmas, not this year.

• give her a trip by-proxy with L'Appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home, by David Lebovitz
• avoid the struggle of gifting a box mix, by giving a bottle of mixer instead, with Williams Sonoma's Trisha Yearwood collab, "Christmas in a Cup," and her favorite Prosecco 
• honor your own inherited culinary traditions, with What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women and the Food that Tells Their Stories, by Laura Shapiro 
• color her kitchen with the punchy print of the holiday-appropriate tartan Le Creuset

BUSINESS BABE

She may be graduating from the Business School this coming June, but she's double majoring in home-grown Ambition and sorority-bred Sass. Boasting an impressive pageant-dress collection and a slew of networking business cards, she drops names just as frequently as she pushes your buttons. Still, she's your sister, and that warrants at least one killer Christmas present that's just as special as she is. 

• find a place to stow her business card collection with a Kate Spade card holder that matches fashion with function
• help her lay out her next big plan with a Rifle Paper Co. 2018 weekly planner 
• inspire her with The Working Woman's Handbook: Ideas, Insight, and Inspiration for a Successful Creative Career, by Phoebe Lovatt 
• give her a break from all the competitive ladder climbing with a fellow ambitious and funny girl, Unqualified, by Anna Faris 

PUNK GRRRL

She believes that denim jackets are secondary in importance to the patches with which you adorn them. She's a  newly-minted vegan who's always ready to convert a fresh food disciple. When she's not busy serving as the Treasurer of Feminist Club, she makes posters of Marsha P Johnson in her printmaking class. She deserves a present that makes just as much of a statement, as her hair does. 

• support her new cause with Frugal Vegan: Affordable, Easy, and Delicious Vegan Cooking, by Katie Koteen and Katie Kasbee, and vegan snacks from Whole Foods
• bolster her visions with Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World, edited by Kelly Jensen
• pin a new highlight on her jacket, with a woodcut "feminist" pin from a woman-owned Etsy business

NERD BOY 

The only thing more vast than his high school band tee shirt collection, is his comprehensive knowledge of the Zelda video games. His favorite thing to do after a rigorous Knowledge Bowl meet is curl up with a good high fantasy. He's a part of not just one, but two, Dungeons and Dragons campaigns, and he knows his way around an ocarina in real life, too. My baby bro is more than worthy of a Christmas gift that's out of this world (or just a portal to another!).

• dive deeper into the Grisha Universe - one of his bookish faves! - with The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic, by Leigh Bardugo
• send him off on a completely new fantasy adventure with Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings
• make his next session a little more interesting with an aesthetic D&D dice palette that fits his character

What kind of relatives do you still have to shop for? What is your go-to last-minute gifting idea? Let me know, in the comments below!