A heartfelt, old-fashioned touching story I read because it was mentioned in a Christmas movie! I thought it would be a bit more substantial but it was an enjoyable short read to finish off the year!

It struck me in reading this how much more Jim - the husband - gave up than Della did. Jim gave up something he could not replace, while Della gave up something more temporary. Although, Della was willing to sacrifice something personal.

Interesting 100 year old story. I'm not sure what the Magi has to do with the story, however. This is an American story, commonly re-told at Christmas.

I love, love, love PJ Lynch. The freckles that dust skin, the way he invests such emotion in stance, composition, etc. is evidence of his talent. This O. Henry story is no different. You've probably heard it before, but the tenement, the bustling city, and the love of the newlyweds for each other are aptly portrayed by Lynch. This was lovely and worth the "re-read."

A good little story I might have enjoyed a lot more as a child.
Surprises suck, and nobody owns anybody, children.

You can read it online here:
The Gift of the Magi

I just read the Goodreads description for this story and laughed my ass off:

O. Henry's classic tale of Della and Jim, the struggling newlyweds so anxious to give each other a Christmas gift that each sells the one thing the other holds most dear, receives an oddly lifeless treatment here. Heyer's meticulously detailed illustrations are pretty but stilted; the characters look like mannequins. The rueful Jim fares better than the poor prematurely middle-aged Della, who at times looks more like his mother than his wife. Still, the story is as touching as ever, and neither time nor mediocre artwork can dim its glory. All ages.

That is the official description of a story (the kindle edition) with more than 62,000 ratings. Aren't descriptions/blurbs supposed to be positively biased towards the book? Make no mistake, I love the snarky undertones about the artwork and the fact that it is on this site as a book description rather than a subjective review, it just seemed exceedingly strange to me that that would be the official description.

As for the story, there's not much I can say. I read it a while ago in school but forgot about it until now (the holiday season and the unceasing Christmas music at work reminded me of it). It's decent, not really memorable or special in any way except to teach dim middle-schoolers: "Look, children, that's called TRAGIC IRONY. Copy that down in your notebooks, now!"

Maybe I didn't love this story because I'm not a Christmas person (I'm Jewish by birth but don't practise) nor much of a holiday person. Too much good cheer for my evil tastes, I suppose- but mostly I just wish we celebrated things that are more worthwhile. (I'm not trying to knock any Christians here; I'm talking about cultural holidays in general.) So I couldn't really relate to the couple's strange need to buy things for each other. They are just things, after all.

Anyhow, hopefully everybody reading this has a better Christmas than Jim and Della did, and is perhaps a bit more conscientious about what really matters around the holidays.

Perfect little start to the Christmas season with the truest meaning of this time of year!

I remember this as being a good story.
I re-read it today and remembered that I like that twist almost at the end.
Unfortunately, O. Henry didn't end there, he added a long paragraph explaining his choice of title. Fail.