IT is a task that can frustrate even the most skilled of us – and leave us cursing our scissors and sticky tape.

But now help is at hand for anyone who needs their Christmas gifts wrapped.

Tomorrow, in a generous festive gesture to local people, members of Lowestoft's churches will be offering to wrap shoppers' presents – with all the effort, paper and labels provided free.

The volunteers, from Lowestoft and District Christians Together, which includes members from about 20 churches, hope that the large number of people flocking to the town centre for their Christmas shopping will take advantage of the wrapping session, which gets under way from 10am next to the Britten Centre.

It will be the third year in a row that the group has provided the free service and members hope that more than 100 gifts will end up being wrapped. In previous years, the volunteers have proved themselves dab hands at wrapping items of all shapes and sizes – from a large pedal bin to a stack of computer games.

Each present that is wrapped will come with its own label and every person who uses the free service will be given information on local churches in case they want to join them or find out what they have to offer.

It is hoped the event might even encourage people to buy presents tomorrow so they can wrapped straight away – which would provide a welcome boost to local shops and The Journal's Love Local campaign.

Capt Paul McDonough, chairman of Christians Together in Lowestoft and District, told The Journal the Christmas present wrapping sessions were a way of thanking people for supporting churches in the town and spreading the word about what they had to offer. He said: 'The people of Lowestoft have been very, very generous with their support and we wanted to give something back as a way of thanking them.

'We decided we wanted to something for free for the people of Lowestoft and someone came up with the idea of wrapping presents, so we thought it sounded fun and a bit unusual and so said we let's do it.

He added: 'We hope that a lot of people come along and get their presents wrapped tomorrow and they can also find out what is happening in their local churches this Christmas. We did get quite a few children who wanted presents wrapped for their parents coming along to the previous two events.'

Among the group tomorrow will be Geoff Watson, assistant priest at St Margaret's Church, in Hollingsworth Road, and who is said to be the 'best wrapper' in the team.

He said: 'Tomorrow will bring the love of Christ to the people of the town in a fun and accessible way and help people prepare for Christmas.'

Margaret Poppey, 64, from Oulton Broad, will also be helping out. She said: 'People love having their presents wrapped. They can not get over the fact it is free. You don't seem to get anything for free these days do you?!'