If you’ve waited this long to begin your Christmas shopping, you’re busy indeed. Or maybe irresponsible, or a curmudgeon, or disorganized. Or possibly an adrenaline junkie. Whichever—you need a plan, because the scheme off of which you’re working isn’t getting the job done. This is no time to stay the course.

Maybe it’s the team’s hot start this season. Or the return to the blue and gold. Or the debate and controversy on what some called the “Buff-a-Slug” logo. Then again it could be that the new unis, complete with a number on the front left breast, look just so cool.

While many are still uncertain what to give their loved ones for the holidays this year, Buffalo already has its gift to the city wrapped and ready to go. What could this be, you ask? It’s a gift in the form of all the holiday music you could ever think of.

Tis the season to be jolly, and what can better help inspire jolly feelings than a good glass of wine or two? The holiday season warrants a bit of indulgence, and even those who are temperate throughout the rest of the year will enjoy a bit of the good stuff.

A book is a fail-safe gift: Even if the recipient doesn’t love it, at least it says that you think she or he is smart. You can find most of these titles at Talking Leaves Books (951 Elmwood Avenue and 3158 Main Street). Try Rust Belt Books (202 Allen Street) if you’re looking for something used, out of print or local—Talking Leaves has local interest stuff, too, but not as big and not as quirky a collection as Rust Belt. For a truly unique gift, try Old Editions (74 East Huron Street) or the Antique Man (234 Allen Street).

We all know the goody two-shoeses of the world got piles of candy in their stockings, while the downright rotten kids got a cookout in a dirty tube sock. What about the rest of us—the subtly subversive, secretly devious and sporadically mischievous? We’re the ones who ended up with stuff like these actual, bizarre excerpts from my stockings of Christmasses past.

Yes, we at Artvoice love Christmas as much as you do, but even we start to hit that wall. There’s only so much of Ray Coniff Singers’ “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”—and even Run-DMC’s “Christmas in Hollis”—that we can take. So we know that there’s no better way to celebrate the season than by giving the gift of music and in bulk. What we mean is it takes the big box sets to deprogram the brain after hearing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” a thousand times. Besides, these lavish sets look better wrapped than those single CDs and iTunes gift cards. Here’s our picks:

If money were no object, you could solve the problem of what to get for that film buff on your list with Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films (Image Entertainment), a box set compiling no fewer than 50 full-length masterpieces from the distributor that pretty much created the art house theater. From 1922’s Haxan (Witchcraft) to 1973’s The Spirit of the Beehive, with stops along the way for the best films of Fritz Lang, G. W. Pabst, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, David Lean, Sergei Eisenstein, Jean Renoir, Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut and others, it’s a film school in a box, though comparing it to a year of college tuition is about the only way to make the $850 price tag seem like a bargain.

I’m not a fan of shopping, but I understand it as an obligatory part of the holiday season. The pressure of finding the perfect gift for those special someones translates into the drudgery of a long and painful hunt. A little change of attitude can turn this painstaking process into something more enjoyable. Just like there are a million fish in the sea, there are a million gifts out there, and that special someone would be lucky to get any one of them. My new rule of thumb is if it’s something they didn’t own yesterday, then you fulfilled your obligation.

Yes, it’s Christmas time again. Time once more to hang the decorations, sing carols, drink hot chocolate, send cards to loved ones and participate in the obligatory “Secret Santa” at the office. Designed to strengthen the interpersonal atmosphere among workers, the practice is meant to make the CEO think a bit about the present he has to buy for that nameless punk in the mailroom—the one with the pierced tongue and the tattoo that’s clearly visible above his collar. It’s also a chance for the nameless punk to buy something nice for that techno-girl working over in collections.

Theater tickets are a nice gift, though scheduling the date can be tricky. Most theaters will accommodate you with some sort of gift package or gift certificate. For family fare with broad appeal, tickets to a show at Shea’s are an excellent choice. Gift certificates are available on line at www.sheas.org. Molly Ringwald is coming in Sweet Charity this February. That will be followed by Spamelot at the beginning of May, and Chita Rivera from May 29-June 3. For the dancer or dance student in your life, tickets to Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life are a sure bet. Seeing the foremost dancing star of the Broadway stage recreate great moments from a career that included the original West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, Chicago and Kiss of the Spider Woman, while she reminisces about great choreographers from Jerome Robbins to Bob Fosse to Jack Cole is a once in a lifetime experience.

Whether a whole gang drops unexpectedly on your doorstep, or you forgot that the friend or cousin you see every year has a newly acquired passel of stepchildren, it is almost impossible not to be blindsided at least once during the season—even if you are a host or hostess with “the mostest.” Here are some thoughts on last-minute gifts, snacks and drink ideas that, like unexpected guests at holiday time, can seem to come out of the clear blue. For tips I asked my mother-in-law, the most gracious and (seemingly) well-prepared hostess I know.

Places to take kids while school's out.

Last minute needn’t mean last resort—at least not as far as the person opening the gift is concerned. Last-minute gifts aren’t always afterthoughts; on the contrary, they are often the nearest and dearest who are the hardest to buy for. If you still don’t know what to get for your mother, your brother or your significant other, it may be time to bite the bullet and splurge on something really special. The ever-popular shopping stretch in the Elmwood Village has specialty stores both new and old that can certainly provide the right gift for the right person—provided that you, the buyer, are ready, willing and able. The best advice at this point has got to be just do it.