December 21, 2004

6:48 PM

MissingGiftFilter: You have your coolest uncle in the family holiday gift draw. It looks like the gift you carefully chose for him will be late - what do you do? [+]
posted by deliriouscool to (15 comments total)

He has 30 books waiting to be read, so rather than adding to the pile, I got him a 3 CD set of This American Life stories. Ordered December 5, they are AWOL; if they don't arrive tomorrow, I can't take them with me to the family gift exchange. Suggestions for a nice, creative way to tell him Santa has been delayed, without running out and buying a lame replacement gift so he has something to open?
posted by deliriouscool at 6:49 PM on December 21, 2004

How about snagging images from the CD cover art and/or TAL's web site and making a nice, gift-certificate-sized collage? You could even have it laminated for cheap at Kinkos or your local copy shop.
posted by damn yankee at 6:51 PM on December 21, 2004

And, of course, putting that in a nice, decorative envelope, and stating somewhere on the collage the details of what will be delivered to him once Santa gets his act together...
posted by damn yankee at 6:53 PM on December 21, 2004

same boat but replace cds toddler sized tees. have the art work DONE just no tees.
i am plannning on doing paper tee shirt and will mail out the real one when/if they get here.
posted by ShawnString at 7:13 PM on December 21, 2004

Get him something cheap.

Then send the CDs to me.
posted by Doohickie at 7:41 PM on December 21, 2004

Is it possible to download a few of the shows and burn them to CD so you actually had a CD for him to open at the gift exchange? If not, I suggest a collage or some such, maybe even turn it into a guessing game. A rebus? One of my favorite non-presents was when my Dad was getting me a CD-ROM drive for my old Mac Plus that had gotten delayed so he built me one out of foam core with little pins for LEDs etc. It was an amusing package to open and I kept that damned foam core CD-ROM drive for years and years.
posted by jessamyn at 7:51 PM on December 21, 2004

At least one person on my gift list gets screwed by shipping delays or my own procrastination every single year, and a nice card with a print out of the CD covers, or the product info from Amazon (or wherever) or just a drawing always seems to get the message across and nobody is ever mad. They may just be used to it, though. It pays to create very low expectations in your family.
posted by jennyb at 8:28 PM on December 21, 2004

Hah, I am waiting on 3 TAL CDs as well. I've been fretting over this very same situation.

The only thought I've had: on the TAL website, they have a few sample pages from the comic they produced a few years ago. I am considering grabbing a page, and rewriting the text balloons so that Ira Glass very genially and apologetically explains to my mother why exactly her holiday gift is delayed. Print it on some card stock, add some sequins, some glitter, and it should suffice.
posted by Tufa at 8:30 PM on December 21, 2004

In my family, a gift delayed by shipping generally leads to a long, elaborate chain of clues that takes enough time for the gift to arrive - like, a puzzle leading to the location of another puzzle leading to the location of a key that can be redeemed for the gift.

Or, make a miniaturized version of the gift, put it in a normal-sized box, and when your uncle opens it, exclaim "Oh my lord! It must have shrunk in the wash!" (I'm sure you can come up with something wittier...
posted by muddgirl at 9:28 PM on December 21, 2004

STALL! STAAAALLL!!!

Create some crazy-mad obstacle course type thing he has to accomplish ("Find a crow feather in the city park. Take to 154 7th Street. Exchange feather for leather thong. Take thong to--") Pepper gift clues along the way. Hope he doesn't finish it all before the gift arrives.
posted by stray at 11:13 PM on December 21, 2004

Thank you all; I feel much better. We've never done gift treasure hunts in my family, but we are the kind of people who wear wax lips for special occasions (thankfully, no one could find a supply when I got married), so your suggestions will come in handy. Can I carve a foam core Ira Glass today...?
posted by deliriouscool at 5:34 AM on December 22, 2004

Have you considered buying the gift at a store, then returning the mail-order one to that store when it arrives a few days later?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 8:21 AM on December 22, 2004

Have this lead to some wacky turn of events in your life, then write and record a funny yet moving story about how you went out of your way to help your uncle have a merry christmas, then send it in to TAL. Then, when it's broadcast, give that recording to your uncle and live off the money you make as the new David Sedaris.

XQUZYPHYR, my guess is that the set is the individual episodes, which are only available through them. However, they do have two CDs available for purchase through most stores.
posted by drezdn at 9:06 AM on December 22, 2004

Thanks to the magic of Photoshop, and Tufa's inspiration, this is what I came up with. Wow, that was some work. Ira Glass is on my list now, even though I like the show. Thanks again, everybody.
posted by deliriouscool at 6:59 PM on December 22, 2004

deliriouscool, that turned out just lovely. May I rip off some of your script? Empty mailbox, T minus 14 hours to take-off.
posted by Tufa at 9:07 PM on December 22, 2004