OK, this will date me, but here goes. I grew up in a small mill town with just working class folk. At Christmas we all gathered in the community gym and sang carols with a piano accompanist, the adults told stories, and then Santa would show up with his bag of goodies. Each child got a plain brown paper bag which contained an apple, an orange, some unshelled nuts, hard Christmas candy and a candy cane. It wasn't much, but when you really don't have a lot to begin with, it was the best!