From left, gift wrappers Angela Wright, Anne Buhler Dillon and Susie Huffman wrap a steady flow of packages at Weaver's department store, Ninth and Massachusetts streets. Huffman has been the lead gift-wrapper at the store since the mid-1990's.

From left, gift wrappers Angela Wright, Anne Buhler Dillon and Susie Huffman wrap a steady flow of packages at Weaver's department store, Ninth and Massachusetts streets. Huffman has been the lead gift-wrapper at the store since the mid-1990's.

Behold the beauty of the bow.

Clearly there is nothing more important to properly wrapping a Christmas present than a bow. In fact, the bow is the centerpiece of my elaborate Christmas wrapping strategy. If you find out that you are a little short on paper, put a bow over the bare spot. If you created a tiny tear in the wrapping paper, put a bow over the blemish. If you, perhaps, stabbed the package a couple dozen times with a pair of scissors in a fit of Scotch tape-induced rage, put some bows on it. I have given many a gift so beautiful that it has included seven or eight bows.

That’s just one of the many great wrapping ideas I have to offer. A big one falls under the category of what not to do. As tempting as it is to take sharp scissors in hand and cut your wrapping paper by spreading it out on the living room floor, don’t do it. Explaining why there are so many bows attached to the carpet can be tricky.

Despite my clearly firm handle on the art of gift-wrapping, it still was suggested that I spend a little time with the professional gift wrappers at Weaver’s department store in downtown Lawrence. A wrapper at the complimentary gift-wrapping table in the basement of the store, easily will wrap more than 50 presents a day during the holiday shopping season.

Susie Huffman, who has been wrapping gifts for Weaver’s since the mid-1990s, tells me that the key to a good gift-wrapping experience is to have the right tools. Exactly. I’ve been saying that all along, so I ask Susie where the hot glue gun is.

“The what?” she says.

The tools apparently are a little different at Weaver’s. Susie says some of the more important items to have are a nice work bench that is about waist-high; good-quality, thick wrapping paper; and a heavy tape dispenser that doesn’t move around every time you grab a piece of Scotch tape, which apparently is not needed as much as one would think.

“You know, we need the tape to last through Christmas,” Susie tells me as I’m showing off my wrapping skills.

When Susie started this job — she thinks in 1996 — she figured it would be for a month or so. Anne Buhler Dillon was a friend of one of Susie’s daughters and got a job wrapping when she was in high school in the late ’90s. But she still comes back for the wrapping season, which begins the day after Thanksgiving and ends on Christmas Eve.

“It is just a great time of year to be around people,” Anne says. “People are happy that they found something. They’re happy that they don’t have to wrap it. Now, there may be a little more crankiness on display from some shoppers as we get closer to Christmas.”

But not surprisingly, Susie and Anne both say the people are the reason they keep coming back to this seasonal job. The people include both men and women.

“The men come in and say they can’t do this,” Anne says.

“While the women,” Susie chimes in, “say they’re tired of doing this.”

The men, though, can be more fun to watch. Like put three rolls of wrapping paper in front of them and ask them which one they prefer.

“Some of them have the look ‘I’ve done well to find a present. I’m maxed out here,'” Susie says.

Yes, the women at the wrapping counter will choose for you, if you would like. And yes, it is an all-female crew at the wrapping counter this year and most years.

“We have had some great male gift wrappers, but I was not one of them,” says Joe Flannery, president of Weaver’s. “It is a fine art.”

It is an art the wrappers think they can teach me. Susie asks me to figure out how much paper I need for this box that is about the size of a shoebox. I tell her to give me a tape measure, and I’ll have it figured out in a jiffy. She indicates that is not how it is done. So, I estimate it, and then it is time for me to pull the paper off a special rolling device that has a blade that cuts the paper, if you lift the paper and flick your wrists just the right way. I lift and flick that paper like a great matador with his cape.

My paper looks like the bull won.

But I continue on because I note that we have a really large supply of bows within arm’s reach. I could describe in detail all the expert steps I followed thereafter, but the Hallmark corporation and Santa himself have threatened to sue me if I provide any more advice about gift wrapping.

Suffice to say, my package was distinctive. A package at Weaver’s has a signature look. They put a special ribbon on it, twisted just the right way. I’ve heard it called the Weaver’s Swoop. That is not what my package was called.

“The Chad Whoops,” Anne says.

About that time, one woman who was having a package wrapped by one of the other workers at the counter asked if they accepted tips. They do not, but I’m almost certain that her tip was to fire me.

Have no fear, it is just the highly skilled women at the counter the rest of this holiday season — and for seasons to come. Flannery said the complimentary gift-wrapping service will continue to be a part of Weaver’s for a long time.

Susie says people will be appreciative of that.

“I think this service says something about what it is like to live in a small town,” Susie says.

But let’s face it; there is a bigger reason why this service remains so popular.

“We are doing something that a lot of people don’t do anymore because we all get too busy,” Susie says.

Yeah, that’s the thing about this Christmas season: It would be a lot more convenient if it came in February. There’s so much to do and not enough time to do it, so we skip the little things. It is easy to forget how a nicely wrapped present can make you feel, or it is easy to put off making that phone call to an old friend, or it is easy to skip a thousand other little things. It is worth remembering, though, that a little thing is pretty important to the story of the season.

Regardless, most of us still won’t make time for the little things, so the women at the wrapping counter will remain busy.

But If it makes you feel any better, there is one thing the women say we don’t need to slow down to do: ripping open our Christmas presents. They don’t mind seeing their handiwork demolished in mere seconds.

“I just want them to look pretty under the tree,” Anne says. “When it is time to open them, tear into them.”

But please, please, don’t touch the bows on the carpet.