Christmas Countdown … Day 6

One day when the kids were in school, I went shopping at our local mall. It was in the fall and I must have come from work because I remember I was dressed fairly decently in nice pants and such. I would have been working on the Sensory Panel for a couple of hours two mornings a week at ADM at that time. As I exited the shoe department I saw a poster sign outside customer service announcing they were hiring seasonal gift wrappers. 

I was drawn immediately as if my feet had no choice but to make their way back to the service desk. I told the lady behind the counter I was interested in applying for the seasonal gift wrap team and before you could say, “I would like all three packages in D with red ribbon, please,” I was sitting across the desk from the manager of HR. 

She was, in my opinion, rather chic in her classic cut jacket and skirt, hose and pumps. I apologized for being so casually dressed, but was shopping and the sign caught my eye. I actually looked pretty good myself, so at least she knew I was aware that pants at that time were a no-no for Von Maur female employees. We hit if off and I was hired on the spot. 

I was euphoric. I love to wrap gifts. I love to work in retail. I had always enjoyed the times I had worked in a mall atmosphere.

But as I walked to the car, I remember thinking what the heck kind of impulsive feat had I just pulled. John was in junior high at the Christian school we had enrolled him in, Sarah was in high school and Rachel was in college. Of course my husband was working the same job he had worked since the first days of our marriage and I had just hired on to wrap gifts at a department store during the busiest season of the year for families. 

Russ was totally supportive as were the kids. John got a kick out of telling people his mom was a professional (w)rapper. I was able to block out days I couldn’t work and for the most part we were able to figure out car pools and adjust to the added hours of me being gone. 

I loved it. 

Well, most of it. 

Back at that time, if anyone had more than two gifts to wrap, protocol demanded that you announce “Multiples!!!” as you returned to your station. From that point on, the opportunity for chaos and mayhem increased rapidly. Before picking up a new order, wrappers had to check the larger order already in progress.

Packages were grabbed and toted off to other work stations, where hopefully they were wrapped, the stick it note with the order number was reattached and they were returned to the bags at your feet. Before you could release the order for pickup, you had to check the tags and count the items. Once the order was complete, you would place it all on the pickup counter, connecting all separate bags with red ribbon tied to the handles.

There were checks and balances in place to make all of this run smoothly. But there were also humans. Humans of all ages and personalities who were just as nice as they could be but not a slave to details. 

So there were occasions when an item was returned from an early Christmas gathering and, lo and behold, the contents of the package were not what had been purchased. This involved a manager with glasses resting on her nose, apologizing profusely and trying desperately to find the originally purchased item.

And of course somewhere out in the universe was another package that was also a mistake. Or the counting process revealed a missing package and sure enough, it was awol, probably tucked in a bag that was already making its way to the parking lot.

People like me who are very, very, very attentive to notes on post its and protocol and all manner of doing what you were told to do would stand at our work stations, fighting nausea because somewhere someone was going to open the package with the missing item from this order. And someone else was going to discover a bonus gift that involved opening every other gift to figure out what had been added.

 But who? And how? And when?

There were other things like working the counter where gifts were dropped off and seeing a familiar face smiling and saying how he or she didn’t know I worked there. And I would smile back and be sweating bullets because when all the small talk ended and I took down the wrapping and ribbon choices the moment of truth would come. I needed to write the name down on the ticket half we kept, which proves awkward when this person had been calling me by name the whole time.  Eventually I got smart and would slide the ticket over to the customer to fill out. I don’t think I fooled anyone. 

On the positive side, I honed my wrapping skills and even mastered the cube and the coat box, which takes two strips of paper and is dicey to match. If you know, you know. It’s an art and you can’t beat the deep satisfaction when you get it right. 

Something that was even more satisfying than getting the paper pattern on challenging boxes to perfectly match was the opportunity to pray over the packages I was wrapping. It may sound odd, especially for someone who struggles remembering names, but I would just pray for the recipient. I would pray for the family gathering or the friend party where gifts would be exchanged. 

On the  occasions where a mistake was discovered, I would pray for patience in the wronged party and pray for whoever ended up with a gift that was not actually intended for them. It was a great way to work and yet be a part of the holidays in a positive way. I prayed for co-wrappers who looked tired or weary or let out a sigh every now and again. 

All in all it was a pleasant experience and I actually returned for another season. It was a great company to work for. They gave us all lovely Christmas gifts, they let us have the 15% employee discount while we were on the payroll, and the people were super nice to work with. 

As much as I enjoyed this little holiday job at Von Maur, life started getting busier as John moved into high school. I also added a different job or two during that time.  So, alas, for me it was time to wrap up my wrapping career and move on. But I fondly remember those years as I wrap our own gifts each year.

And yes, I do pray over those as well <3