Wrapping Up Christmas Volunteer Wrappers Put The Finishing Touches On Gifts For Those Last-Minute Shoppers Crowding The Stores

It doesn’t take a special art for Betty McCormick to wrap a Christmas present.

It just takes a present. And, preferably, a box. McCormick wrapped gifts Sunday in downtown Spokane for the Tree of Sharing program, which provides wrapped donated gifts to the needy.

“If it’s in a box, I can wrap it fine,” McCormick said. “If it’s not in a box and it’s soft, there’s trouble.”

Across the Inland Northwest, business for the folks who wrap presents gears up as the days before Christmas count down.

The wrap stars hold court at shopping meccas like NorthTown, the Coeur d’Alene Plaza and Silver Lake Mall. They wrap for charity and they wrap for profit. They ease the plight of the fumbling folks who can’t - or won’t - wrap their own gifts.

They have war stories - tales from the Christmas front.

“Christmas Eve last year, I wrapped 82 presents for one man,” said Julie Meier, who wrapped gifts at Coeur d’Alene Plaza to benefit the Coeur d’Alene Public Library.

All 82 gifts were for the same lady, and the library charges from $2 to $5 per present. “She must have been some woman,” Meier quipped.

In Spokane, most of the wrapping was under wraps.

Nordstrom now just hands customers boxes and bows for a do-it-yourself job.

The Bon Marche is the one downtown department store providing actual wrapping for actual gifts for friends and family. And workers aren’t talking.

“I guess we’re not allowed to comment,” said one wrapper, shrugging in front of stacks of boxed gifts.

The only active wrapping was happening at the Tree of Sharing, where customers were actually donating gifts to the needy. People stopping at the folding table in the skywalk near Nordstrom picked a gift tag, bought the gift and returned it for a free wrap. The gift will then be given to the needy person who requested it.

An 11-year-old boy wants the Goosebumps game, Terror in the Graveyard. A 30-year-old man wants a Bruce Lee video. A 27-year-old woman wants a spice rack and clothes.

Most of the remaining tags were for warm, winter clothing. A 4-year-old boy asked for a sleeping bag.

“It’s like people who don’t have very much money are gonna get a better Christmas from people who do,” explained Sarah Chrastil Ingebritsen, , a 10-year-old volunteer who wrapped presents with her family.

Most of the wrappers ensure that people who don’t have present-wrapping skills get a better-looking present from people who do.

“This is Christmas-wrapping madness,” said Joan Foote, dressed for the season in a red turtleneck at Silver Lake Mall. She had no idea how many gifts she’s wrapped. Just “lots.”

Foote and her friends, all members of the local Beta Sigma Phi social sorority, have wrapped gifts at Silver Lake Mall since the place opened. They can’t be stopped.

Arlene Pischner awoke Sunday to find her car caught in a Rathdrum Prairie snowdrift. But in the spirit of Santa, she didn’t let that stop her from making it to the Silver Lake Mall.

“I wouldn’t miss gift wrapping,” she said.

The busiest night is yet to come: Christmas Eve. But the wrappers aren’t afraid. They feel good helping the Johnny-shop-latelies, Coeur d’Alene library wrapper Pat Laam said.

“And we get to wrap all the expensive things we can’t afford,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color photos

MEMO: Changed from the Idaho edition

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Kim Barker and Ward Sanderson Staff writers