PRACTICAL VIEW ASSEMBLING GIFTS : How to Be a Panic-Free Santa

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle

And away they all flew, like the down on a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,

“Some assembly is needed--you can do it tonight.”

Every parent who has played Santa on Christmas Eve can recite at least one toy-assembly nightmare--of unpacking the scoot-along toddler tractor to find only one rear tire or to learn that the instructions are in a foreign language. Then there’s discovering that two adults with advanced degrees can’t attach the door to the See’s Candy cardboard playhouse.

Such revelations usually occur around midnight, too late to run back to the store or even to knock on a neighbor’s door to borrow a screwdriver.

It’s panic time.

“You see that clock ticking away, and all of a sudden you’re not so nimble anymore and not so coordinated, and the screws won’t go into the holes,” says Beverly DeJulio, a home repair expert with a seasonal specialty in putting toys together.

DeJulio, who offers household repair advice regularly on the Discovery Channel, was in Los Angeles last week on a national tour aimed at easing the pain in the phrase assembly required.

She says she learned from experience not to wait until late Christmas Eve.

“It was the first year I was a single parent. I had four children, and the youngest was 2. It was about 5:30 in the morning when I finally put my head on the pillow, and the first child was up at 5:45. I was only 15 minutes ahead of them.

“You really must look ahead,” she says, spreading out some toy parts in her hotel suite in preparation for a television show.

Her first rule: Read the instructions before you even think about buying the toy.

For instance, a popular toy for the under-6 group this year is the Wild Webber, an action game involving a plastic spider scurrying around a circular pen as the players fling small discs at it with catapults. The game comes in about 25 pieces. “It’s not really difficult to put together, but it’s very time-consuming,” says DeJulio, snapping yellow legs into place on the purple spider.

A big item for older kids, the Knock Out, uses a motorized ram to knock at a wall of plastic bricks. But the wall needs to be assembled by fitting the halves of 28 color-coded bricks together. It doesn’t take an engineering degree, but it does take time, and that’s what should be factored into Christmas Eve plans, says DeJulio.

“There’s a dollhouse out there this year that has more than 200 parts--that’s a four-hour job to assemble. Just don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

Once they’ve chosen the toy, parents should do a dry run. Here’s DeJulio’s method:

* Lay out and sort all the parts and pieces, then use small bags or boxes to stow the screws, nuts, bolts and washers by type.

* Open boxes carefully so that if a part is missing, you can pack it easily to return. (Don’t even attempt assembly if pieces are missing.)

* Study instructions. Make sure you have the tools you’ll need. The basic tools for toy assembly are small and medium sets of screwdrivers--slotted and Phillips--and regular and needle-nosed pliers.

* Buy batteries. Also have glue, tape and scissors handy. They often aren’t listed in the instructions.

DeJulio recommends putting down a solid-color sheet or piece of plastic, especially if you are working over a patterned carpet or tile. It can save hours of pawing around for a dropped screw or washer. While assembling, she advises, follow instructions closely and don’t improvise.

DeJulio does aim to reassure rather than to terrify. Toys are steadily becoming more parent-friendly, she says, thanks to such advances as molded plastic, pre-assembled parts, instruction sheets with pictures and toll-free hot lines.

The days of stamped metal toys with the little slots and the tabs that broke are holiday history, she says. “Everyone agrees that assembling toys today is much easier than it used to be.”

Despite the advances, there are areas where it’s wiser not to do it yourself.

“Probably the most difficult for a novice would be a bicycle,” DeJulio says, “especially if it has a lot of gears to it. That’s time-consuming, it takes a lot of skill, and the instructions aren’t the best.”

Her advice: “See what the store charges to assemble. It’s probably worth it.”