RENO — While most Christmas wish lists might include new toys or a new camera or the latest DVD, the Reno-Sparks Gospel Mission was busy with wish lists that included things like food, warm clothes and basic human dignity.

“We want people to feel special when they come here,” Rick Redding, executive director of the mission, said as volunteers raced by to fetch coats for poor and homeless people who came for a holiday meal. “We want to treat people with respect and with dignity. … We want to look them in the eye and tell them they mean something as a person.”

Around 750 people came to the mission in the cold late afternoon Christmas Day. Redding described the clientele as a combination of homeless, working poor and newly homeless. Working poor, he said, are people who have jobs but no fixed address, perhaps living in motels or bouncing around from place to place. Newly homeless, he said, are those who may have just come into town and ran into job or gambling problems or other bad luck and who show up at the mission because they need help but have no idea how or where to get it.

“With their eyes, they say, ‘Help me,’ ” Redding said.

Of those who came on Christmas, some were single, some were couples, some entire families, all looking for a bit of cheer, which was served up in spades by more than 75 volunteers. As people filed in, volunteers swarmed in bearing plates of hot turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, followed by trays of pie and pitchers of hot coffee or tea. After the meal, visitors were welcomed into a room where they were given the chance to receive gloves and socks and jackets and hats to help them against winter’s bitter cold. Again, volunteers raced about in seemingly organized chaos to make sure the needy had their needs met, at least for a day.

It ran as smoothly if not more smoothly than a small family gathering, Redding said, thanks to people like Evelyn Almeleh of Sparks and her daughter and grandchildren. They all came down Friday afternoon to help serve food and pass out clothing. Almeleh said sacrificing a day normally dedicated to self-indulgence helps teach the younger generation a good lesson.

“These kids need to see this sort of thing,” she said. “They think life is easy, they think the food comes free.”

Almeleh’s 17-year-old grandson Nick Marcellini agreed that it teaches younger people to be more aware of the world around them.

“It’s just nice to give back to other people who are less fortunate than we are,” he said.

Marcellini’s younger brother, Asher, 8, scurried about bringing dinners to the tables. He said he thought it was good that people had a place to come and receive a hot meal on the holiday and that he got some satisfaction from helping out — beyond just the candy cane he was eating.

“It feels good to do something good for people,” he said.