They’ll be home for Christmas, thanks to a deal struck between Democratic and Republican leaders in the U.S. Senate. But Maine Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins might need help from Santa’s elves to get their gifts in order for the big day.

Instead of taking the final vote on the health care reform package at about 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve as expected, Maine’s senators and their colleagues are scheduled to vote at about 7 a.m. The move allows them to get home earlier than expected, but work on the legislation has kept the Senate in session for the previous three weekends. As a result, they’ve had to get creative with their holiday preparations.

“I’m certainly not feeling sorry for myself, but I am eager to get home,” Collins said in a recent interview. “I’ve done shopping online at L.L. Bean; thank God for L.L. Bean. And I faced the reality and ordered the presents for my nieces and nephews online as well.”

Snowe said she’d had a bad feeling when she was home in Falmouth over Thanksgiving and had done most of her shopping early, but she forgot to wrap the presents.

“So they’re just sitting in closets at the moment,” she said in a recent interview. “I’m trying to think, ‘OK, how’s this going to work?’ I’m definitely wondering about the whole wrapping deal. That’s one of the things I didn’t think about.”

Collins faced another dilemma: stockings.

“Usually, I not only bring presents for my large family, but also I am in charge of filling my parents’ stockings,” she said. “It was so funny, because I just went down to the gift shop and bought them a few trinkets, which is pretty pathetic. But they understand and know that I’ll get there as soon as I can, and again, I realize that at my age I’m really fortunate that I have been able to be home every single Christmas.”

And then there’s the issue of snow, especially for Collins, who lives in Bangor but plans to go straight to Caribou from Washington, D.C., to be with her family.

“Most of my winter clothes are in my home in Bangor, so if I go straight to Caribou, I’ll have to borrow my sister-in-law’s boots and my mother’s jacket,” she said.

When informed that the weather report for northern Maine was calling for several inches of new snow, Collins said, “Seriously? Oh, rats, this really will be a problem!”

Though the Christmas Eve vote will be the first in the Senate since 1895, neither Mainer regretted having to perform their duties.

“I always spend (Christmas) in Maine, and hopefully I can get there in time, but we do what we have to do; it’s just where it’s at,” Snowe said.

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