Before there were YouTube Shorts, there were short stories. With Christmas nostalgia, I have to think of The Gifts of the Magi. Who else remembers O. Henry?

He was the king of the magazine short story, famous for the surprise twist at the end. This story was from 1905. The story showed up in American literature textbooks for decades, it is probably still in some to this day.

The world he shows is grim. Britain had Dickens as the literary evangelist of the street urchin. The growth of the American cities created an outpouring of literature about the working poor, or just straight up homeless.

As was the fashion at the time, he was a socialist back when I was a theory without a lot of practical application. The idea then was to be nicer, share and have compassion on one another. The rich guys are not the heroes. The world might be against eh little guy, but things have a a way of turning out different than you’d expect.

The heroes in this story, are not terribly heroic. They were a young struggling married couple, desperately in love. They want to give each other their very best on Christmas.

The story invokes the three wise men of the nativity. These men study the stars and are so sure of what they know they set off to find what the star indicated.

O. Henry starts with the practical facts at the very beginning:
One dollar and eightyseven cents.

The wife, Della, has managed to save only this much for husband Jim’s Christmas present. She falls weeping at the thought of what she cannot give him. The story if very specific asbout their income and their costs. They don’t have much.

Even today, I have heard people complain about how Christmas is too commercial. Della want to give a good gift to her beloved. She sells the only thing of value she has: her long gorgeous hair. She didn’t earn her hair, it was a gift of genetics that she was able to have hair past her knees. She sold it to buy her husband a chain for his watch.

Jim had inherited his watch, passed from his grandfather to his father and to him. It didn’t have a chain.

And as he cam home to his wife’s shorn head, he is dumbfounded. He hugs her and she discovers that he sold his watch to buy her jeweled hair combs.

The IRONY!

He closes the story saying the Magi would approve of this couple. Hard to agree, since their sacrifices were in vain.

Schoolchildren have discussed and argued what these two should have done. As I review it, I see that there is a bit of arithmetic and home economics in there. It’s a good story for kids to learn from .

I could understand that a socialist would see the materials things as less valuable. And the celestial angels would agree. The point of the gift is that each gave their very best. I’d like to shake both of them and tell them to use their common sense.

Foolish as they were, they did know each other very well. They paid attention to what lit up their eyes. I am sure I will not be as wise as I hope with all my Christmas preparation, but I do hope to see delight in the eyes of those near me.