At the WNC Nature Center, if you snooze you don't necessarily lose, especially if you're a black bear.

This turned out to be the perfect time to build a climbing structure for the center's two bears. It's a Christmas present they may not fully appreciate until spring.

You better watch out, someone knows who's been naughty or nice. It's not Kris Kringle you have to be aware of, but director Chris Gentile, who knows when they're sleeping and knows when they're awake.

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"Kind of down a little bit," he says of hibernating bear Uno. "He'll be really down when it gets colder in a couple of weeks."

"It's like, don't disrupt my sleep," he says, showing us the dazed male bear. "I think he's pretty much like you'd be on a Sunday afternoon watching a football game. He's down for the count."

Not fast asleep, but close enough.

"We have a two- or three-month window when they go into their deep sleep for the year," Gentile explains. "Now, they don't truly hibernate, but they get very inactive."

So, this is the most wonderful time of the year to break new ground.

"It's better than having to relocate them. It's good to do it while they're sleeping," says Will Keesler, of Beanstalk Builders.

They've built a present for the bear that seems to have everything.

"We are building a bear palace," Keesler explains, saying visitors will have a great vantage point of the bears. "The second level right here, it'll be face to face with the people standing on the boardwalk watching them."

The company specializes in everything from playgrounds to climbing towers for humans, but this project's more on the wild side.

"They built us this model so we can get a sense of what our climbing structure will look like when it's done," Gentile said, showing off the miniature palace.

Like a kid on Christmas Eve, turns out one of the animals can't wait. Uno's female counterpart is more curious than your average bear.

"Ursa's really giving it an eyeball," Gentile says. "She's been watching the construction, and she knows something's different."

For bears and guests, it could turn out to be the gift that keeps giving.

"I hope they like it," Keesler says. "I think, at first they won't be used to it. When they get up there and check it out, I hope it's the only place they hang out."

The shame is, the bears won't really enjoy their Christmas present until the spring when they wake up from their yearly slumber party. Not to be a killjoy, but Uno keeps hitting the snooze button.

"He looked up a little bit, and I've seen him sniffing because he noticed something different in the exhibit . But he's certainly not interested in coming to check it out," Gentile said. "He hasn't left his room in two weeks."

The bears better not cry and they better not pout. But who could blame them if they wake up in March and wonder when in the world Santa Claus came to town.

"Yeah, maybe more like spring break present," Gentile says.

Friends of the Nature Center funded the climbing structure by donating $17,000 dollars. It will be unveiled in March.