Spokane residents make one last stop before Christmas Day

Those venturing through the Spokane rain on Christmas Eve were all on some sort of mission.

For Butch Smith and his granddaughter, Savannah Kukuk, it was fitting in a last-minute ice skating session at Riverfront Park. It wasn’t anything unusual for Smith, though – he grew up speed skating in Montana, he said.

As the rain poured, Savannah was guided by her smiling grandfather as he spun around, frequently looking back at her and grabbing her hands to pull her along the wet ice.

The two, who both “like a little adventure,” Smith said, decided to strap on their skates while other family members were preparing for Christmas. He and his wife traveled from Montana to Spokane and brought their grandchildren’s presents in Santa’s sleigh, he said.

“How many presents did we put under the tree?” Smith asked.

“Like, 50!” Savannah responded.

Her favorite Christmas tradition, she said, is “Elf on the Shelf” – a mysterious and mischievous little elf that sits quietly all day until the children go to sleep.

That’s when the elf moves around, plotting and planning and even playing little tricks or leaving small gifts.

Savannah’s elf left a letter for her Tuesday morning, she said, adding she was excited for the next morning. Her elf had some funny jokes, too.

Other people out and about had other plans.

Local shops like Atticus and Boo Radley’s were filled with people Tuesday, browsing trinkets and small items that likely were headed inside a family member’s stocking.

Mary Ann Kucher came to Spokane from Western Washington to visit her son and had some last-minute gifts to grab before Christmas at Atticus. As she clutched a few small trinkets, Kucher said she was looking forward to her family’s traditional Italian meal they have over the holidays.

While she acknowledged the pleasant surprise of how Atticus is filled with unique and eccentric gifts, she also pointed out how it made her think Spokane has a more small-town feel to it.

“I told my son, ‘This place is not a small town,’ ” she said.

But after shopping a few times around at local downtown stores and wandering the city, Kucher changed her tune.

“I said, ‘How can’t this place be a small town?’ ”

In Boo Radley’s, business was slowing down a bit, said Claire Menzer, who works at the store. Monday was busier, she said, as most people made last-minute stops for stocking stuffers. The store’s most-sold items this week have been candy, and perhaps unsurprisingly, stress toys.

“Christmas coping,” Menzer laughed.

Beth Pipkin, who had a pair of socks in her hand and, notably, a book called “Creative Cursing” jokingly said she does an annual trip to Boo Radley’s because it’s “hard to buy for the men” in her family.

But Pipkin makes her rounds to all the local stores because she wants to shop local, she said, and the store has all the best little gifts she wouldn’t have thought of.

“I love this city,” she said.