Window shoppers pause outside a toy store in downtown Providence, Rhode Island in December 1940, studying a display filled with bicycles, roller skates, dolls, and other Christmas gifts. Large signs advertising bargains hang above the window, a familiar sight in American storefronts of the era. Scenes like this were common in cities across the country, where holiday displays drew families to the sidewalks and offered a glimpse of the season’s most sought-after toys. Photographed by Jack Delano during a period when the nation was emerging from the Great Depression and only a year away from entering the Second World War.