The 12 Posts of Christmas, Day 6: Of Hair Combs and Watch Chains

Inside: What do hair combs and watch chains have to do with this classic from American literature? Read on to discover a short but sweet Christmas story.

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The Story

The setting is a small and sparsely furnished apartment in New York City just after the turn of the twentieth century. The players, Jim Dillingham Young and his wife Della, their last name appropriate, as they are a young married couple. The story opens as Della is fretting over what to give her husband Jim for Christmas. With only $1.87, and that hard fought through scrimping and saving from the household budget, she doesn’t have the funds to buy a grand gift fitting her husband. Looking in the mirror, she comes up with the solution–selling her hair, which she does, to buy a chain for Jim’s prized possession–a family heirloom pocket watch. But the sacrifice is not without struggle, as she wonders if her husband will still find her pretty without her long, beautiful brown hair.

Jim enters the scene, coming home from work, and his expression is one of bewilderment. (SPOILER ALERT) He asks her what happened to her hair. Afraid he no longer finds her attractive, she tells him her tresses will grow back quickly, that she sold her hair for him.

Jim then reassures her that he loves her no matter what the state of her hair, and he tosses a package–a gift for her–on the table. She opens it to reveal tortoise-shell combs–the very combs she had so long pined for in a shop window. She loves them and reminds him her hair will grow back fast. She then presents him with his gift. He opens it to see a fancy watch chain, and she urges him to show his watch so that she can see how well it matches. He then confesses to her that he sold his watch to buy her the combs.

(Read the story here.)

The Author

“The Gift of the Magi” is a sentimental Christmas story, written in the style of the day by William Sydney Porter, better known as O’Henry. A classic O’Henry tale with a twist, it is said he penned the story in Pete’s Tavern on Irving Place in New York City. It first appeared in The New York Sunday World under the title “Gifts of the Magi” on December 10, 1905. Later it was published in book form in the anthology The Four Million in April of the following year.

“The Gift of the Magi” has been adapted for movies and television. My first exposure to the story was the television movie “The Gift of Love,” which takes the basic story line and changes some of the details–wealthy heiress (Marie Osmond) falls in love with a Swiss immigrant (Timothy Bottoms) against the wishes of her relatives who have arranged for her to marry a dull man (James Woods).