The brave face of youthful pride. Example, the calling card with the complete name. The incongruity of this placement.
The abandonment of youthful love. Jim and Della. How many of us started out in similar circumstances?
The adoration of Della for Jim and her consuming desire to find a Christmas gift that adequately conveyed her adoration of him. And by the end of the story we discover that Jim adores Stella just as much and is driven by a similar desire to find a gift which measures up to this adoration.
Each of them comes to the conclusion that the gift that will most adequately speak of their adoration is something that will add the crowning touch to something rare and prized each one has. Della has her hair; Jim will get combs. Jim has his watch; Della will get a chain.
So we, the reader are privy to the thought processes of Stella on how to solve her problem, and we are pretty sure Jim is thinking in the same direction. Each will take the object they most prize and have control over and they will translate that object into the gift for the other. Della sells her hair to buy a chain. Jim sells his watch to buy combs.
In so doing, each one makes a tremendous sacrifice, and in making that sacrifice, each one is changed. Della sacrifices her precious hair and is scared that she has become a different person—a Coney Island chorus girl. She cheapens herself externally. Jim sacrifices his watch, the watch that had been in his family for three generations. It is the symbol of his manliness, and when he sells it, he gives up not only the token of his rich heritage but also the badge of his future greatness. He cheapens himself internally. O. Henry calls this cheapening “the ravages made by generosity added to love.”
From one perspective, it is rather silly, don’t you think? What are combs without hair? What is a chain without a watch? And this kind of foolish sacrifice could lead quickly to anger, don’t you see? Do you mean that I sold my watch/my hair for nothing? Do you mean that I cheapened myself for nothing?
But it doesn’t. Jim speaks for both of them: the sacrifice of one’s most prized possession for the sake of a gift adoring your beloved, intensifies the value of that gift. Jim says just as much to Della, “’Dell,’ said he, ‘let’s put our Christmas presents away and keep ’em awhile. They’re too nice to use just at present.’” He does not say, “They are useless and stupid.” No, “they are too nice.” His words rescue a situation that was veering toward being out of control. He banishes any suggestion of self-cheapening. He straightens out an exchange that was as awkward as it was tender by invoking the power of hope.
Tonight is only one in a long string of Christmases ahead of us. Down the way a Christmas will come where we will bring out the combs and the chain, and all will be well, very well. Let that hope be our present to each of us right now. It is enough.
So, the takeaway: Jim and Della are changed from the people who kissed each other that morning when Jim left for work. Della is without her crowning glory and Jim without the watch of his past and promise. Yet, because of their mutual sacrifice, each, though changed, is more in love with the other than ever before. That intensity of love generates hope. Hope safeguards their gifts. What they have done is not in vain. Therefore, they can enjoy the moment.