Super Last-Minute Gift Guide

When a person has everything, you can't just go buy a DVD or tickets to a play. But I find that most such people will happily accept food-related items. A few suggestions in that vein are below:

Food: Preparing It or Eating It
Food Network's Holiday Gift Guide has all sorts of wonderful gifts for the foodies in your life, like the Mario Batali Chianti Essentials Pot that I reviewed last week and the Calphalon Nonstick Everyday Pan that I was also sent. I think it's pretty terrific. (It cleans up so easily and cooks food so evenly!)

Your foodie pals are more about eating than about cooking? Restaurant gift certificates may be ordered online and, quite often, printed as soon as you confirm your purchase, eliminating the wait time. To get more bang for your buck, check out Restaurant.com, where you can get discounted gift certificates (how does paying ten bucks to get $25 worth of food at Anjou sound?) to local restaurants. Be aware, though: many of the discount certificates come with caveats, so be sure that the gift certificate you're about to give doesn't depend upon the recipient spending $150 before it's even valid.

Or, try going the prepared food route and pick up gourmet cookies, sauces, teas, soup mixes, or candies. Ambler establishment The Flour Pot makes delicious cookies (trust me on this one) with gift boxes starting at $22. You may not get them in time for Christmas, but why not order some for New Year's? If you're looking to make your purchases online, there are a world of possibilities, like the Daily Candy-endorsed, Lancaster-produced Christina's Pantry Jams or, if you're looking further afield, any of the delicious-looking mixes from Frontier Soups, coffee or tea from Gevalia, or a few bags of oh-so-clever Jewels of Denial gourmet hard candies with titles like "This Has No Calories" and "Sour Grapes."

Of course, you also can educate the foodie in your life with continuing education classes at The Restaurant School, shorter-term classes at the new Foster's location in Old City, or just skip the food altogether and go straight for the booze with a month-long wine certification class or one-night tasting session at the Wine School of Philadelphia. (I did the Sommelier Smackdown with Ross in October – it was a great time!)

On the list of "everythings" that the "people who have everything" already have, you'll usually find a pet or two. Sometimes, you'll find that your best bet is to buy your gift recipient something pet-related rather than personal. Besides, animal owners love people who spoil their pets as much as they do.

Gift to the Animals
The New York Times had a review earlier this week of the new Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health: Home Edition, which sounds like a pretty good reference book for your more paranoid loving pet owners. If your gift recipient is concerned about his pooch's health in a more dietary than medical way, check out Endlessky, whose co-owner is the German Shepherd-lover Mamaist and I met in New York over the summer. They currently only sell their bully sticks to the trade, but the site will tell you enough about the products that you should be able to find comparable ones available for retail purchase online.

And if you're giving a gift to a cat-lover, perhaps to keep their cherished kitty from clawing up the new sofa, you'll find that most cats would be happy with a simple corrugated cat scratcher like this one. If you don't think that's gifty enough, you can check out the fancier version at CatClaws.

If the person you're shopping for has a more exotic pet (which is to say pretty much anything other than livestock, cats, and dogs), websites like Sanctuary Supplies, Exotic Pet Supplies (if you don't mind the exchange rate), Exotic Nutrition Pet Company (even sugar gliders deserve to be spoiled), and Dr. Jungle's Animal-World are all at least good places to start when considering your gift purchase. Although quite honestly, if the hamster habitat you're buying isn't at least this elaborate, you probably shouldn't even bother.

If your recipient isn't a foodie and doesn't like animals, or if you're on a budget, you may be at a bit of a loss. Consider giving your time, instead.

For Free or for Cheap
One of the best gifts I ever gave my father was a gift certificate (made in Photoshop) for an afternoon together, doing whatever he wanted. We ended up going to lunch and seeing a movie, two things we don't often get to do together. It's the little things that you can offer—free babysitting, a home-cooked meal, or even some light janitorial services—that are often the most appreciated. If you want something a little more involved or fancy, head on over to CVS and duplicate photographs of your recipient (especially the ones you're in) and frame them or put them in a scrapbook. It's an inexpensive gift that shows how much your recipient matters to you.

If all else fails, laughter is the best gift of all.

Make 'Em Laugh
Sure, the person you're shopping for can buy tickets to whatever show s/he wants to see, but nobody wants to go see stand-up comedy alone. Buy a pair of tickets to Helium Comedy Club or 1812 Productions' This Is the Week that Is (which I fully endorse) and take the recipient early so you end up in the front row: you'll laugh harder, and, quite possibly, at each other when whomever's onstage decides to start picking on the audience. On a budget? Do something cheap, like ice skating or bowling, that you know you're both pretty bad at and let the hilarity ensue. Get drunk together on good wine and reminisce about old times. If you like someone enough to give him or her a gift during the holiday season, you've gotta like that person enough to have a good time together. It's the best gift you can give.

Lolcat above by Ross Currie of his other cat, Simon. Give Ross the best gift of all and go vote for it on I Can Has Cheezburger.