Christmas

You made me think of my ST review of "The Gift of the Magi."

"The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry 

by Kung Fu Zu 12/4/13

This is, perhaps, my favorite Christmas story. There are no extraneous characters, no skinflint capitalists, supernatural beings sent to instruct us or unfortunate types who let us feel good about ourselves because we feel sorry for them. It is a story which could have happened, and surely similar acts, as portrayed in the story, have happened countless times throughout history.

Jim and Della, a young couple, who love each other deeply, live in a scruffy $8 a week apartment somewhere in a large city, probably New York. While not suffering grinding poverty, times are difficult and it takes all of Della’s skill as a housewife to make ends meet as Jim’s pay has been reduced from $30 to $20 a week.

Although they do not have much, both have a possession of which they are very proud. For Della it is her beautiful hair. For Jim, it is the gold watch which his father and grandfather owned before him.

The day is December 24th and while Jim is at work, Della counts the savings she has been able to scrimp together over the last year. Della despairs as she wants to buy a present worthy of Jim and all she has is $1.87. After a short cry, she looks into the cheap mirror on the wall, unpins her hair and watches it fall to its full length. With a firm resolve, Della puts on her coat and marches to “Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds” and sells her beautiful tresses for $20. With this in hand, Della sets out for Jim’s present. She finds it in the form of a platinum fob chain for his watch.

Back in their apartment, Della does her best to make her, now boyishly short, hair attractive for Jim. Nervous that Jim may not react well to the new look, she goes on with her daily routine and anxiously awaits Jim’s return.

Hearing his footstep on the stair, she sits near the door with the fob chain in her folded hand. Jim opens the door and stops cold as he sees her. For some seconds he stands stunned and does not seem to understand what has happened. Taking control of the situation, Della makes it clear that her hair is gone and says, “You needn’t look for it, …It’s sold, I tell you---sold and gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs on my head were numbered, … but nobody could ever count my love for you.”

Jim snaps out of his trance, gives Della a long embrace and then takes a package out of his pocket. He tosses it on the table while telling her, “no hair cut could make him like her any less.” Della picks up the package and opens the gift only to go from a scream of joy to tears of dismay. Inside the box is an expensive tortoise shell comb set with jeweled rims, which Della has been eyeing for some time. Recovering quickly, Della lets Jim know all is well by saying that her “hair grows fast.”

She then holds out the platinum fob chain for Jim telling him how she hunted all over town for it and how wonderful it will look on his watch. Instead of taking the fob, Jim flops down on the couch, put his hands behind his head and smiled. He then says, “Dell…let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ‘em a while. They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.”

In the space of a few pages, which take less than ten minutes to read, O. Henry manages to give us many truths, but I believe there is one message that most closely touches on the true meaning of Christmas. That is the willingness to sacrifice for others or as O. Henry calls it “the ravages made by generosity added to love.”

And if you think about it, this is the original reason for Christmas; “for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.”

It is hard to believe that I wrote this six years ago. But the message still stands, as it has for centuries.

I would suggest donating the popcorn string to the birds and starting anew next year. We (royal we) will prompt you next year a little earlier which will allow you to include cranberries in the formula. When alternated with popcorn, this will produce a striking effect.

Whether one can obtain fresh cranberries is another thing. One would suppose dried cranberries would work just fine.

One source notes the use of floral wire to make the garland because it requires no needles. I had not heard of this technique but it seems to be a useful innovation.

Being somewhat of a reflexive dolt about such things, I figured the only way to do it was one-popcorn/one-cranberry/one-popcorn/etc. That's how I remember doing it. And that would indeed make a pleasing pattern as we see:



But then some wiseacres decided to innovate:



You can also do 1/2/1. And in what looks like a riot of inconsistency, you can do one popcorn followed by one, two, three, or four cranberries, in a pattern that to my eye seems to not require too much bothering about numbers:



And then if you find yourself short of cranberries, I think this popcorn-dominated string, with cranberries inserted at intervals that I can only guess are irregular, would do nicely. I kind of like this one.



From the diversity of images I’ve seen on the web, it appears there is no requirement to do it one way or another…which means you can’t screw it up. And if some rambunctious or impatient son or wife eats all the popcorn, you have this option still:

I couldn’t find a photo of dried blueberries used in a Christmas garland. I did find a nice photo of an exquisite blueberry wreath:



One presumes that such a wreath placed outdoors would make a good feeder for the birds and squirrels who are often hard-pressed to find something good to eat in the dead of winter.