Small gifts

We used to all get in the car and drive down town for Christmas shopping.  We had a few shops and a couple of department stores, so the selection was sometimes slim.  We would each take turns going in the store with my mom.  Everyone else would wait in the car.  She would give us each 20 dollars to spend.  Looking back now, that seems like nothing.  We had to use it to buy a small gift for each of our siblings.  So actually we spent about five dollars on each gift.  You couldn't get a lot for five dollars, even back then.  We only spent what we could afford on Christmas, which was not much.  My mom would bring us one at a time, back to the car with our bags.  She would warn us not to tell our siblings what we had picked out for them.  She would choose one of us to take our turn shopping with her.  Each time we would return with our purchases in a bag.  We would always try to guess and look through the opaque plastic Dollar Store bag to see what the others had.   I protected mine with my arms and held it against my chest so no one could see.  We would each go home and take turns wrapping our little presents. We would put them under the tree.   Usually they were small action figures, toys, or dolls for my sisters.  I remember once I got gloves.  They were simple kit gloves that would keep my hands warm when I walked to school.  There were many times we didn't have Christmas at all but when we did, those small gifts made Christmas special.