As I was sitting on my couch the other day watching commercials in between excerpts of Hallmark Christmas Movies (because my loving wife has our DVR packed with 80+ episodes of ‘Days of Our Lives’) a commercial touting the ultimate in Christmas gift giving came across my TV screen. Someone’s beautiful wife awoke on Christmas morning, hair and makeup perfect upon rising out of bed, and giddily ran downstairs and outside to see her brand new Lexus parked in her driveway with a gigantic red bow perfectly draped across its top. Now, if you’re like me and you’ve opted for that new set of matching Rachael Ray cookware for your significant other instead of adding a second mortgage payment to your finances in the form of a new luxury automobile, then this post is not for you. Those who have opted for the latter will find this post extremely helpful when planning the logistics of this surreal gift giving endeavor.

Hopefully your friendly local neighborhood dealer has your ideal vehicle in stock. If not, and they can locate your new wheels for you, they should be able to dealer transfer your new ride from another franchised location straight to them without any major struggles. If you’ve located your dream vehicle and it’s one or even several states away, then you need to consider transit times when you are planning your purchase, unless you want your beautiful wife to run downstairs on Christmas morning and see a big pile of snow where her brand new car or SUV was supposed to be parked. There isn’t enough mistletoe in the world to make up for that gaffe I can assure you!

For illustration purposes I’ll use the state of California as our starting point. If you are shipping a vehicle from Los Angeles to Denver, you can expect an average transit time of 3-5 days. LA to St Louis, 5-7 days. LA to Dallas, TX, 4-6 days. Coast to coast moves take even longer with an average transit time from LA to Miami taking 10-14 days. It’s about the same if you are shipping from LA to Boston, MA. Keep in mind these are averages, actual transit times can vary drastically based on availability, equipment breakdowns, weather delays, etc. If you’ve waited until the last minute to decide on and purchase your Christmas gift (like I do every year) some companies offer expedited shipping services. Expect to pay more for these services, but if you’ve got enough dough to put down on a new SUV for your significant other, than expedited shipping fees are just a drop in the bucket!

I hope this post helps you avoid a potential gift giving disaster, and Honey if you’re reading this and still looking for stocking stuffer ideas, I’m partial to the Ronde Solo by Cartier. Or another sleeve of golf balls.