"The Gift of the Magi" is a short story by American writer O. Henry, first published in 1905. The story tells of a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with only a small amount of money. As a sentimental story with a moral lesson about gift-giving, it has been popular for adaptation, especially for presentation at Christmas time. The plot and its twist ending are well known, the ending is generally considered an example of cosmic irony. The story was allegedly written at Pete's Tavern on Irving Place in New York City.
The story was initially published in The New York Sunday World under the title "Gifts of the Magi" on December 10, 1905. It was first published in book form in the O. Henry collection The Four Million in April 1906.
Contents
Plot
On Christmas Eve, a young woman named Della Dillingham Young discovers that she has only $1.87 to buy a present for her husband, James, also known as Jim. The Dillingham Youngs possess two items they value as treasures: Della's knee-length brown hair that would depreciate the Queen of Sheba's jewels, and Jim's gold pocket watch, a family heirloom that would make King Solomon envy him.
Della dresses warmly and visits the nearby shop of a wig maker, Madame Sofronie, who buys Della's hair for $20. Having earned and saved $21.87, Della spends $21.00 to buy a platinum fob chain to go with Jim's watch, which he has attached to a worn leather strap.
When Jim comes home from work that evening, Della confesses to selling her hair to buy him the chain. After reassuring her that he loves her no matter the hair, Jim then gives Della her present: the set of jeweled combs she has always wanted, but cannot use until her hair grows back out. Della gives Jim the chain, and he reveals that he had sold his watch to buy the combs. While they know the gifts they gave each other cannot be used for a while, Jim and Della realize how far they have gone to show each other their love and how invaluable it truly is.
The story ends with the narrator declaring that those who sacrifice their material possessions for the people they love are as wise as the magi who brought gifts to Jesus and invented the tradition of giving presents on Christmas.
Adaptations
Films
The Sacrifice (1909)
Love's Surprises Are Futile (1916)
The Gift of the Magi (1917)
As a segment of O. Henry's Full House (1952)
The Gift of the Magi (1958)
Dary magów (Poland, 1972)
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1977)
The Gift of Love (1978), with Marie Osmond
The Gift of the Magi (1978 TV Movie), with Debby Boone
I'll not be a gangster, love (Не буду гангстером, дорогая/Ne budu gangsterom, dorogaya, USSR, 1978),
As a segment of Mickey's Once Upon a Christmas (1999)
The Gift of the Magi (2001) is a faithful short film adaptation in which an elderly Della narrates the events of the original short story to her granddaughter.
The Gift of the Magi (2004)
Raincoat (2004)
For the First Time (2010)
Gift of the Magi (2010), a made-for-TV Hallmark movie starring Marla Sokoloff and Mark Webber and directed by Lisa Mulcahy
Darovete na vlahvite (2013) directed by Ivan Abadjiev.
The Gift of the Magi (2014) a Greek film directed by Ismene Daskarolis, places it in the economic crisis of contemporary Greece.
Other media
In the 1930s, the famous Italian playwright Eduardo De Filippo freely adapted the story to create his drama work Il dono di Natale (Christmas Gift), which is set in Naples.
In 1955, in The Honeymooners episode 13 of season 1, 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, Ralph looks for the perfect present for Alice for Christmas. Without money, he pawns his prized bowling ball to buy her an expensive gift, only to find out in the end that she bought him a custom bowling ball bag.
Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, which is a twist on The Gift of the Magi, is a children's storybook by Russell Hoban which was first published in 1971.
The anime anthology series Manga Fairy Tales of the World features an adaptation of the story in the 1978 episode Christmas Gift.
In the 1978 Christmas special Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, Bert and Ernie do a parody of The Gift of the Magi. Ernie gives up his Rubber Duckie to buy Bert a cigar box to put his paperclip collection in, and Bert gives up his paperclip collection to get Ernie a soap dish to put his Rubber Duckie in. In the end, Mr. Hooper happily gives them back their items, realizing how much it hurts to sacrifice their possessions to please each other.
The Newspaper Enterprise Association distributed a comic strip adaptation, Gifts of the Magi, in 1983. The adaptation was credited to the Joe Kubert School.
An off-Broadway musical version entitled The Gifts of the Magi premiered at Lamb's Theatre in New York City in 1984. Written by Mark St. Germain and Randy Courts, the play is regularly produced in schools and regional theaters.
Radio drama series Adventures in Odyssey features a comedic adaptation of this story in its episode Gifts for Madge & Guy (1987).
The opening sketch of the December 10, 1988, episode of Season 14 of Saturday Night Live reimagines The Gift of the Magi as Donald and Ivana Trump (played by Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks) selling their yacht Princess and estate Mar-a-Lago, each to pay for a gift intended to adorn the other.