#hit post!

Did they have to do this? Not necessarily. Breaking into a house and stealing other people's christmas gifts were extra risky with Mac being there. Mac gets excited and screams when he sees his gift, and they were probably aware of this, which is why he was the last to open his gift.

And yet they chose to bring Mac each time, even though they could've instead stolen the gifts to bring home, pretending like it came from them. I can think of a few reasons why they don't, but the one I'd like to believe is that while they couldn't afford decorating their home, they still wanted little Mac to experience unboxing his gifts the way most kids would– surrounded by a christmas tree and bright lights.

When Luther got out of prison, he showed indifference and even hostility to Mac the entire time, which was why Mac believed that Luther was going to kill him (and Charlie). But it turned out that Luther had listened to Mac when he said he always wanted to go to Cooperstown with his dad, and so Luther bought a ticket for them. When asked why he kept it a secret, Luther said that he just wanted it to be a surprise. For someone who didn't show much emotions, Luther wanted to express his apology by giving Mac what he wanted.

Mac does the same– he listens.

One of Mac's biggest romantic gesture in the show is buying the RPG for Dennis. He was even busying himself the whole day trying to figure out how to surprise Dennis with this. When he finally gave the RPG to Dennis, Dennis asked him, and how did you know I wanted a RPG? And Mac told him that it was because he knew Dennis... and that Dennis had mentioned it a lot of times. Giving a gift was Mac's way of showing Dennis that he cared, and Mac was all smiles after realising that his gift had an effect on Dennis.

Mac was also the one who immediately suggested buying a rat stick for Charlie's 'birthday'. And sure, this could be seen as manipulative, since Charlie wanted to quit rat bashing but I honestly think he knew that if Charlie didn't bash rats, he would still find some other animal to bash. That's because they've known each other since forever, and Charlie had a bashing stick when he was a kid too. And Charlie appreciated the gift, getting super emotional out of happiness.

(In the same episode, Mac bought Dennis a shirt too, but Dennis returned the actual shirt Mac bought for a nicer one. I think this was when Mac realised that he only enjoys giving gifts if the person receiving it actually likes the gift, which led him to listen to Dennis' wishes more and buy the RPG)

Okayyyy, the last. This is minor but Mac's insistence on buying a pear for Charlie when he found out Charlie had never eaten one. And now in the cook book, he has "Pear tart for Charlie" in his section, with a note of thanks because he thinks Charlie is going to like it. Super cute stuff