Funny Christmas Shirt The Late One Noun Definition Christmas Dinner Santa Hat

The Late One, Noun: A Funny Christmas Shirt That Names Mark

Our funny Christmas shirt is written like a dictionary entry, with THE LATE ONE set in tall serif capitals and a small [noun] tag sitting at the end of the line. A Santa hat is perched on the first word, tilted as if it just came through the door. A ruled line runs underneath, then the definition: said “five minutes away” twenty minutes ago, Christmas dinner has been delayed accordingly. Last comes a quiet cross-reference, See Also: Mark. The entry belongs to the relative or friend whose arrival time is only ever a rumor, and to everyone at the table who has been waiting with the rolls going cold.

Five Minutes Away, Twenty Minutes Ago

Anyone who has hosted knows the phone call. The turkey is resting, the chairs are pulled out, someone keeps glancing at the driveway, and the voice on the line says he is nearly there. We kept the wording of that call exactly as it sounds, with quotation marks around “five minutes away” so the promise gets quoted back to the person who made it. The cross-reference at the bottom finishes the thought. Mark’s name sits a little larger than the words beside it, the way a name does when the whole room says it at once. It is a joke told in the gentlest possible type, and it lands best on the person it is about.

The shirt suits a few different people around one holiday. Mark can wear it himself and beat everyone to the punch. The host who has kept a plate warm for an hour can wear it while carving. A table full of cousins can pass the story around until it becomes part of how your family tells Christmas. Designed in-house at Podluna for the moment when the dinner bell has rung and one chair is still empty, it holds the whole evening in a few lines of type. A Christmas dinner joke for the late one in your family works best when the late one is in on it.

Where Else Does a Late One Entry Fit Besides Christmas Dinner?

Any holiday table with an empty chair works, from Christmas Eve supper to the present-opening hour that keeps getting pushed back. The definition still holds, and so does the Santa hat.

Once Mark finally texts that he is parking, the little Santa hat above THE will have already said hello for the whole table.