I want to tell you something I don’t love admitting: I am, by nature, a last-minute man. I have wrapped presents in the car. I have once used a road atlas as gift wrap, and I stand by it — that atlas was out of date anyway. So it pains me, as a fellow procrastinator, to be the one writing this post. But somebody’s got to, and it might as well be the guy who’ll feel worst about it if you don’t read it.

Here’s the deal. Every shirt, hoodie, and glass in the shop is made when you order it — nobody’s got a warehouse full of “World’s Okayest Uncle” mugs sitting around waiting (and no, before you ask, we still haven’t found a mug maker here in the U.S. that meets what we’re after, so we’re sticking with the glasses for now — more on that some other time). That’s good news for quality and for keeping things made right. It’s less good news if you’re the type who does your Christmas shopping on December 23rd, because “made to order” means there’s an actual production line between your click and your porch, and that line does not care that it’s Christmas Eve.

So here’s the honest version of the timeline, no fine print required: give a print-on-demand order roughly the same runway you’d give a piece of mail during the busiest shipping weeks of the year — longer than you think, shorter than you’d like. Glasses especially — they’re a little slower than fabric, start to finish, so if a rocks glass or pint glass is on your list, that’s the one to order first, not last.

I’m not telling you this to rush you into anything. I’m telling you because I’d rather have this conversation with you in September, while it’s still a friendly heads-up, than in mid-December, when it turns into an apology email from me and a very disappointed nephew opening a shipping confirmation instead of an actual present. I’ve been on the other end of that email. It’s no fun to write, and it’s worse to receive.

So consider this your official, extremely early permission to start your holiday shopping now, before the leaves have even turned. Pick the design that’s going to make somebody laugh, get it in the cart, and let future-you enjoy not sweating it in December. Future-you deserves that. Future-you has been through enough this year already.

We’ll be sending out clear order-by dates as we get closer to the holidays — through the newsletter and on the socials — so you’ll always know exactly how much runway you’ve got left. For now, just know: earlier is better, and “early” starts a lot sooner than it feels like it should.

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H.D. Ingles is a humorist, author, and the man behind RUNutsNetwork.com — Official Merch for the Officially Nuts.

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