THE GREAT GIFT-HUNT Stashing Santa's sack Sometimes, no matter how carefully Mom and Dad hide presents, the kids find them anyway.

By MARGARET NERY
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
Hide-and-seek is a test of parents' ingenuity and children's perseverance at Christmastime.
The games people play can be fun, exciting times and even rewarding exercises in mental and physical skills that hold many wonderful surprises for those who abide by the rules.
However, around Christmas, the annual game often turns into a frustrating experience for parents who hope to keep Santa's gifts a secret until Christmas morning.
They hide and the kids seek, and eventually it becomes a contest of wills.
Just when parents begin to congratulate themselves on finding the most unlikely hiding place, they may discover that the youngsters have already sniffed out toys and other gifts that have been carefully stashed away in closets, on high shelves, under beds, and even in the garage.
When curiosity gets the better of even good little boys and girls, they often turn into devilish snoops, and parents soon learn that few places are absolutely childproof.
Top secret
One of the most ingenious hiding places was conceived by Melba Fry of Columbiana. Her two boys are grown now, but they still don't know where she hid the gifts.
She smiles as she says, "We had a drop ceiling in the recreation room. I would pull the ceiling down, slide the gifts onto the metal supports and snap the ceiling back in place."
Among the mothers who seem to thrive on the gift-hiding challenge is Mary Therese Driscoll of Greenford Township, who, with 13 youngsters in the house, must constantly find a new place to safely stash her holiday purchases.
She has found that at times, it is almost easier to set limits or have don't-touch rules. Otherwise finding a package may be more of an accident than the result of a search.
"It's not that they are bad, it's just because they are so excited and anxious that they accidentally discover hidden gifts," Driscoll explains.
She has managed to resort to trickery at times when she takes some of the children shopping with her. She would buy a special item "for a cousin," take it home and put it in a shipping box, "but of course I didn't mail it," she says. Another time, she pretended she was going to wash all the family blankets but instead used them to cover the gifts.
No problem
A friend of Driscoll's, Mary Ruth Reigrut of Boardman, has hiding gifts from her five children down to a science. After decorating the house and tree, she simply stashes gifts away in the empty boxes that had held the decorations.
Jill Bresnahan of Boardman says she doesn't have to be very imaginative: "My three kids just take it for granted that Santa will bring something, so they don't bother looking for anything."
She says, "I usually put gifts in trash bags and store them in the basement, where I collect other bags of items for the Rescue Mission," she adds. "The children just assume all the bags are things to go."
When big toys have to be put together, she says, her husband, Patrick, takes them to his father's home to assemble them. She says her sister-in-law, Cindy, hides gifts in the trunk of the car, where they are relatively safe from prying eyes.
Foiled again
With four super-active, inquisitive boys in her family, Vindicator columnist Gail White of Columbiana acknowledges things get a little complicated when it comes to shopping and wrapping gifts. She can't even imagine that other people have no problem hiding gifts from mischievous children.
After a recent shopping trip, her purchases presumably were safely stashed away on bathroom shelves. When she was delayed at work, she worried because the two oldest children would be home before her and feared they'd find the packages.
Another time she sent the boys to her bedroom to watch television, forgetting that was where she had stored gifts. When she heard paper rustling and found the door locked from the inside, she knew the hidden treasures had been discovered.
Unperturbed by the situation, her husband, Pat, says people have to expect kids to be just naturally curious. After all, his sons might have inherited the trait from him -- as a youngster, he too found wrapped gifts and patiently eased the tape off the packages so he could peek inside.
When his mom realized what had happened, she played her own version of the "bait and switch" game and exchanged some of the gifts for other things so she could watch his reaction on Christmas day.
Now that their secret hiding places have been divulged, these parents may have to rethink the gift-hiding process.