History Main / GiftOfTheMagiPlot

* The original is discussed by Jeanne d'Arc Santa Alter Lily in her debut event in FateGrandOrder. She's not a fan of the ending

* The original is discussed by Jeanne d'Arc Santa Alter Lily in her debut event. She's not a fan of the ending

* In ''VideoGame/DarkSoulsIII'', [[spoiler:Slave Knight Gael gives himself to the Dark Soul so that the Painter could use his blood to finish her painting knowing he would be driven insane by it, counting on you to [[ThanatosGambit finish him off and deliver the blood]]. This works...but [[SenselessSacrifice it turns out that]] the Painter was painting the new world because she wanted to give ''Gael'' a new home.]]

* Happened in ''Westernanimation/CatDog'' during "Brothers Day", then {{subverted}} when Dog sold Cat's Gift after buying it to buy something for himself. More specifically, Dog gave up his pool of mud that he and Cat wrestled in to buy Cat a loofa case. Cat sold his life to get Dog a mud wrestling costume. Dog reveals that he sold the loofa case and got Cat a mud wrestling outfit as well, because "I looked up the recipe for mud, and it's really easy to make!"

-->-- '''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''', ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S05E21SantaClaus Santa Claus]]''

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Audio Drama]]
* In the ''Podcast/BigData'' Christmas special, to give Troy a day off, Linda infected people so they couldn't eat meat and so wouldn't go to his Arby's. However, she now can't eat meat herself and cannot eat the ham Troy was going to use his day off to bring to her.
[[/folder]]

-->'''Aladdin and Jasmine:''' (to each other) I wanted to get you a gift.\\

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* In ''Fanfic/FateRevelationOnline'' (a ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline''[=/=]''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' crossover fic), Asuna and her friends discover the ChainOfDeals quest they took has this plot, just with extra intervening steps involved. They don't see the final gift exchange due to [[spoiler:Zolgen eating the wife]]. A follow-up quest reveals the [[spoiler:husband went looking for his wife and was also eaten by Zolgen]].
* Defied in the ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'' Holiday Special, with Guzma specifically telling his cash-strapped followers to '''not''' give their stuff away for each other and just steal if worst comes to worst.

[[folder:Film]]
* Parodied in ''Film/ItsAVeryMerryMuppetChristmasMovie''. First Rizzo tells Gonzo he sold his rare cheese to buy a crystal petri dish for Gonzo's mould collection, but Gonzo sold the mould to buy a diamond-tipped cheese slicer ("Did you keep the receipt?"). Then Beaker sold his autographed periodic table to buy a stand for Bunsen's electron microscope, but Bunsen sold his microscope to buy Beaker rare mutagenic elements. Then Sal Minella explains that he sold his moped to get Johnny Fiama a solid gold record player. Much to Sal's outrage, Johnny's response is an offhanded, "Oh. Thanks, Sal."
* ''Literature/EmmetOttersJugBandChristmas'': Emmet has to put a hole in his mother's washtub, and she has to sell his tools, for both of them to enter a singing contest to win money to buy gifts for each other. In a rather depressing variation on the tale, they both lose (and the tool chest/washtub were the only means either of them had to make a living). [[spoiler: Everything gets resolved when, at the end of the movie, the owner of a local restaurant hires them as his house band.]]

* Subverted in ''Literature/{{Hogfather}}'', when the Dean gives the Bursar a box to keep his dried frog pills in. The Bursar, naturally, doesn't have any pills to put in it ... because the Dean already swiped them from the Bursar's room, so he wouldn't have to shell out any more money to give him a ''full'' pillbox.

* One episode of ''[[Series/{{Alice1976}} Alice]]'' has Flo selling her Black Velvet Elvis to buy her son some gift -- unbeknownst to her, her son has bought a frame for the Elvis portrait. The other characters end up similarly screwed, until Mel comes in dressed as Santa Claus, and corrects the problem.
* An episode of ''TheSingleGuy'' has the single guy and one of the female characters encountering this situation, the exact gifts being a Russian Doll and a comic book. In the end, the single guy makes a quip that [[IShouldWriteABookAboutThis someone should write a book about this]]. LampshadeHanging, anyone?
* Bert and Ernie did this in the 1978 TV special ''Series/ChristmasEveOnSesameStreet''. Bert trades his paperclip collection to Mr. Hooper for a soap dish for Ernie's rubber duckie. Ernie, meanwhile, trades his rubber duckie for a fancy box to hold the paperclip collection. Of course, Mr. Hooper stops by the apartment on his way home to bring them gifts... the items they traded. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2VFgHGKzx4 Watch!]]
* Parodied and subverted in the ''[[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S03E21SantaClausConquersTheMartians Santa Claus Conquers the Martians]]'' episode of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' when TV's Frank gives Dr. Forrester a watch band as a gift but reveals that he paid for it by selling Dr. Forrester's watch. Dr. Forrester then gives Frank a book about death and reveals he paid for it by stealing Frank's blood while he slept and then selling it "so I wouldn't have to use my own money". To which Frank responds, "[[ShoutOut Oh,]] [[Creator/OHenry Henry]]!"

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* In ''ComicStrip/SallyForthHoward'', Sally imagines herself and her husband, Ted, [[http://joshreads.com/images/0612/i061211sallyforth.jpg accidentally re-creating the original story]].

--> ''In the classic Smissmas story "The Gift of the Magi", a girl sells all of her hair to a hair warehouse to buy her boyfriend a watch chain, but in a shocking twist, he looks at his watch and remembers she's bald and it's time to break up with her.''

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''WebComic/{{xkcd}}'' inverts it [[http://xkcd.com/506/ here]] with Black Hat Guy and his girlfriend.

* Partially parodied in the 2012 Christmas Special of ''WebVideo/PatTheNESPunk''. Pat gives up a recently purchased Fairchild Channel F videogame console to get his neighbor, Frank, a book with pictures of The National Park. Frank's gift to Pat were games for the Fairchild, prompting the latter to assume that he sold his van (which was mentioned to be missing from outside) to afford the games. Frank laughs at the assumption, as he merely sold a shovel to get the money and that the van is in the shop getting fixed.
* The final episode of the ''Podcast/TheThrillingAdventureHour's'' "Down on Moonshine Holler" segments reveals that the whole time Jasper Manorlodge was riding the rails as hobo Banjo Bindlestuff to find his beloved Hobo Princess, said Hobo Princess was doing exactly the same thing. She infiltrated high society to try and find Jasper.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* Parodied in Episode 7 of ''WebAnimation/{{Blamimation}}'', where Scott's air conditioner dies during a heatwave. At the end we see that Scott has sold the air conditioner to buy a snowcone for Kris and that Kris has bought refrigerant for the air conditioner... and sold his head, leaving him unable to enjoy the snowcone.

* ''WebComic/{{xkcd}}'' turns it inside-out [[http://xkcd.com/506/ here]] with Black Hat Guy and his girlfriend.

* In the ''Franchise/DisneyPrincess'' comics, Disney/{{Aladdin}} trades his canteen for a telescope holder and Jasmine shows up to say she traded her telescope for a canteen holder.
-->'''Aladdin and Jasmine:''' (to each other) I wanted to get you a gift.
-->'''Jasmine:''' I guess great minds '''do''' think alike.
-->'''Merchant:''' [[OhNoNotAgain They do this every week]].

* In ''FanFic/FateRevelationOnline'' (a ''LightNovel/SwordArtOnline''[=/=]''VisualNovel/FateStayNight'' crossover fic), Asuna and her friends discover the ChainOfDeals quest they took has this plot, just with extra intervening steps involved. They don't see the final gift exchange due to [[spoiler:Zolgen eating the wife]]. A follow-up quest reveals the [[spoiler:husband went looking for his wife and was also eaten by Zolgen]].

* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' had a great parody of this story- the wife naturally sells her hair to buy a chain for her husband's pocket watch. When we see the husband trying to buy his wife some combs, the shopkeeper suggests he sell his watch to afford them... only for the husband to point out that his watch is an antique in perfect working condition and is worth way, way more than a pair of combs, no matter how fancy. "What are they, solid gold?" [[note]]Actually, it was an assortment of expensive hair accessories that was ''referred to'' as "the Combs" (it was more than just combs), and the story says they were "pure tortoise shell, with jeweled rims", making the gift potentially even ''more'' valuable than gold ones.[[/note]]

--> '''Peter:''' Well, that's just great. Now I'm an unemployed masseuse with a bald wife. Merry [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] Christmas.

* Subverted in ''Discworld/{{Hogfather}}'', when the Dean gives the Bursar a box to keep his dried frog pills in. The Bursar, naturally, doesn't have any pills to put in it ... because the Dean already swiped them from the Bursar's room, so he wouldn't have to shell out any more money to give him a ''full'' pillbox.

* In ''Webcomic/RoomiesItsWalkyJoyceAndWalky'', Walkerton [[http://www.itswalky.com/comic/leave-me/ doesn't quite get it right]].

* A [[Website/{{Twitter}} tweet]] from "[[https://twitter.com/ingmarbirdman @ingmarbirdman]]": [[https://twitter.com/ingmarbirdman/status/179979949757841410 i sold all my lizards to buy my girlfriend a Toyota Tundra but she sold her drivers license to buy me a awesome obstacle course for lizards]]

In a common variation, the story is given a LighterAndSofter ending in which both characters get back the items they sacrificed. This is likely if they both sold their precious objects to the same person, and even more likely if that person is a mutual friend or relative.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StarVsTheForcesofEvil'' finale, Star is prepared to leave her world and everyone in it forever in order to be with Marco on Earth, only to find that the portal had already closed. However as it turned out, Marco had done the exact same thing in an attempt to be with Star.

* The Playhouse Disney educational skit series ''Out of the Box'' presents the fable in its holiday special.

--> '''Peter:''' Great, now I'm an unemployed masseuse with a bald wife. Merry [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] Christmas.

[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/{{Nedroid}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/beartato_schmagi.png]]

%% Image selected in Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1367860289067562500

[[quoteright:305:[[ComicStrip/SallyForthHoward https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Sally_Forth_Gift_of_the_Magi_4505.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:305:"So, um...now what do we do?"]]

->'''Frank:''' I shaved my head and got you a watch fob.
->'''Dr. Forrester:''' Oh, you sold your hair and bought me this beautiful watch fob?
->'''Frank:''' ...''Sold'' my hair? No.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* In ''Webcomic/RoomiesItsWalkyJoyceAndWalky'', Walkerton [[http://www.itswalky.com/d/20061223.html doesn't quite get it right]].

* In an ''Franchise/ArchieComics'' story, Betty gives up the money she's saved all year for a new dress to buy Archie snow tires for his car. Archie decides to buy Betty an expensive diamond pin to go with her new dress, but ends up forced to sell his car to afford it. Fortunately, Veronica realizes what is going on, and when Christmas comes presents Betty with the dress and Archie with his car. Moral of this story: have a millionaire friend.

* A single panel in a ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comic featuring Grandpa Simpson's garbled Christmas stories shows us Gerald (the baby with the BigOlUnibrow) having sold his eyebrow to a wig maker to buy Maggie a pacifier-cosy, when she's sold her pacifier to buy him eyebrow wax. (Yes, they're both preverbal. [[RuleOfFunny Roll with it]].) The story's title is "[[IncrediblyLamePun Gift of the Maggie]]".
* A strip in a 50s horror anthology has a variation, combined with the legend of Pygmalion. A misogynistic woodcarver is ordered to carve a female figurehead for UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte's flagship, then falls in love with it. To his astonishment, the figurehead briefly comes to life and tells him that she loves him too. Unfortunately she can only speak once a month while the clock is striking midnight. The woodcarver steals a potion from a gypsy that will turn him to wood so that he can be by his true love's side on the figurehead. Unfortunately, just as he's turning permanently to wood, his beloved turns permanently to flesh and blood - the gypsy's revenge for his theft.

* In ''Creator/MarvelComics Holiday Special 1994'', Marvel's then executive editor Mark Gruenwald sells his ponytail to buy editor-in-chief Tom [=DeFalco=] a lighter, but [=DeFalco=] sold his cigars to buy Gruenwald a hairbrush. Then they remember they both have company credit cards.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Animaniacs}}'': In Issue #43 of the comic, the Warner siblings give Plotz accessories for his ferrari. Dot gave an air freshener, Wakko gave a pink, fuzzy steering-wheel cozy, and Yakko gave sexy lady mudflaps. Unfortunately, for Plotz, Wakko sold the Ferrari's tires to buy the cozy, Dot sold the steering wheel to buy the air freshener, and Yakko sold the frame to buy the mudflaps.

* Defied in the ''Fanfic/PokemonResetBloodlines'' Holiday Special, with Guzma specifically telling his cash-strapped followers to '''not''' give their stuff away for each other, and just steal if worst comes to worst.

* Parodied in ''Film/ItsAVeryMerryMuppetChristmasMovie''. First Rizzo tells Gonzo he sold his rare cheese to buy a crystal petri dish for Gonzo's mould collection, but Gonzo sold the mould to buy a diamond tipped cheese slicer ("Did you keep the receipt?"). Then Beaker sold his autographed periodic table to buy a stand for Bunsen's electron microscope, but Bunsen sold his microscope to buy Beaker rare mutagenic elements. Then Sal Minella explains that he sold his moped to get Johnny Fiama a solid gold record player. Much to Sal's outrage, Johnny's response is an offhanded, "Oh. Thanks, Sal."
* ''Literature/EmmetOttersJugBandChristmas'': Emmet has to put a hole in his mother's washtub, and she has to sell his tools, for both of them to enter a singing contest to win money to buy gifts for each other. In a rather depressing variation on the tale, they both lose (and the toolchest/washtub were the only means either of them had to make a living). [[spoiler: Everything gets resolved when, at the end of the movie, the owner of a local restaurant hires them as his house band.]]

* Inverted in Creator/PhilipKDick's "Oh to Be a Blobel!" This story happens in the aftermath of a war between Earth and Titan. Earth has humans, Titan has [[BlobMonster Blobels]], and spies in the war are made {{Involuntary Shapeshifter}}s. After the war, a human and Blobel spy decide to get married as they are able to spend most of the day in the same form. Their nature causes them a lot of anguish and problems which eventually leads to them filing for divorce. The Blobel wife, in order to save their marriage, decides to undergo a new medical treatment which turns her permanently human. But the human husband has already left to pursue business opportunity on another planet, and in accordance with the local laws had himself turned permanently into a Blobel...

* In the Creator/SteveMartin short-short story "Gift of the Magi Indian Giver", Carolyn sells her cuticles to buy Roger shinbone polish, while Roger of course sells his shinbones to buy Carolyn cuticle frames.

* An odd variation in Creator/ChristopherMoore's ''Literature/TheStupidestAngel''. At the start of their relationship, Molly finally agreed to stay on her antipsychotic medication, which among other things prevents delusions of being an AfterTheEnd ActionGirl (ItMakesSenseInContext), and in return Theo finally gave up his pot habit. But when Christmas comes Theo wants to get her a priceless antique sword that would be absolutely perfect for her ActionGirl persona. To afford it, he starts growing pot again to sell it, and falls off the wagon. Meanwhile, she's getting him a massive, elaborate bong. To afford that, she stops taking her meds.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* An episode of ''TheSingleGuy'' has the single guy and one of the female characters encountering this situation, the exact gifts being a Russian Doll and a comic book. At the end, the single guy makes a quip that [[IShouldWriteABookAboutThis someone should write a book about this]]. LampshadeHanging, anyone?

* There was a one way version of this in an episode of ''Series/TheHoneymooners''. Frantic to find Alice a Christmas present, Ralph sold the bowling ball he had bought recently to get money. On Christmas morning, Ralph opens his present from Alice to discover that it's a bowling ball bag.
* In the 3rd season ChristmasEpisode of ''Series/SeventhHeaven'', Eric sells his old records to buy a chain for a cross Annie's mother left her, while Annie sells her cross to buy Eric a jukebox. In the end, the pawn shop owner comes over on Christmas morning to set things right.

* ''Series/BarneyAndFriends'' used this plot in a Season 11 ChristmasEpisode. After Barney and his friends decide to do a "Secret Santa" thing, B.J. gets drumsticks for Riff by trading his baseball. Riff, on the other hand, gets B.J. a baseball glove by trading his drum. In the end, Barney (dressed like Santa) returns the items back to the two dinos. To make the reference even more obvious, the episode is titled "Gift of the Dinos".

* One episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'', "The Long Morrow", has a variation of this: A young couple is faced with the issue of the man having to go on an 40-year-long space mission that involves [[HumanPopsicle suspended animation]] which will keep him young while she ages back on Earth. The woman decides to put herself into suspended animation so that she will still be young when he comes back, only to learn that he took himself out of his own suspended animation so that he would be as old as her when he came back.

* ''Radio/OurMissBrooks'': [[spoiler: In "Easter Parade", Miss Brooks works during her Spring Break in order in earn money so she can accompany Mr. Boynton to the Easter Parade in a new dress. Meanwhile, Mr. Boynton's working to earn money for a new suit to wear when he takes Miss Brooks to the Easter Parade. Due to TaxDeductions, Miss Brooks doesn't earn enough for the new dress. Mrs. Davis lends her the extra money, and Miss Brooks doesn't learn the money is actually coming from Mr. Boynton. Mr. Boynton no longer has enough money for the new suit, and must wear his old one to the parade. Miss Brooks' new dress is messed up when she accidentally sits on a couple of Easter Eggs Mrs. Davis hid under the sofa cushions. So she too goes to the parade in her old dress of which she's positively ashamed.]]

* A transformation-based version happens in ''Webcomic/TheDragonDoctors''. Euryale, a gorgon, pays a wizard to turn her into a human so she won't turn her boyfriend to stone, but at the same time he's paid someone else to turn him into a rock-skinned being so she wouldn't have to worry about doing the same. Luckily Euryale had earned infinite credit with the wizard in question, so they can easily get it fixed, and just laugh it off.

* The final episode of the ''Podcast/TheThrillingAdventureHour's'' "Down on Moonshine Holler" segments reveals that, the whole time Jasper Manorlodge was riding the rails as hobo Banjo Bindlestuff to find his beloved Hobo Princess, said Hobo Princess was doing exactly the same thing. She infiltrated high society to try and find Jasper.

* Parodied in Episode 7 of ''WebAnimation/{{Blamimation}}'', where Scott's air conditioner dies during a heatwave. At the end we see that Scott has sold the air conditioner to buy a snowcone for Kris, and that Kris has bought refrigerant for the air conditioner... and sold his head, leaving him unable to enjoy the snowcone.

* Happened in ''Westernanimation/CatDog'' during "Brothers Day", then {{subverted}} when Dog sold Cat's Gift after buying it to buy something for himself. More specifically, Dog gave up his pool of mud that he and Cat wrestled in to buy Cat a loufa case. Cat sold his loufa to get Dog a mud wrestling costume. Dog reveals that he sold the loufa case and got Cat a mud wrestling outfit as well, because "I looked up the recipe for mud, and it's really easy to make!"

* ''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' had a great parody of this story- the wife naturally sells her hair to buy a chain for her husband's pocket watch. When we see the husband trying to buy his wife some combs, the shopkeeper suggests he sell his watch to afford them... only for the husband to point out that his watch is an antique in perfect working condition and is worth way, way more then a pair of combs, no matter how fancy. "What are they, solid gold?" [[note]]Actually, it was an assortment of expensive hair accessories that was ''referred to'' as "the Combs" (it was more than just combs), and the story says they were "pure tortoise shell, with jeweled rims", making the gift potentially even ''more'' valuable than gold ones.[[/note]]

* The short series ''The Mix-Ups'' had a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EphpIt-qLAI short]] in which each of the main characters sells a possession to buy another a birthday present. They all end up receiving presents meant to go with the things they sold, but fortunately manage to find new uses for them.

* In ''WesternAnimation/Star Vs The Forces of Evil'' finale, Star is prepared to leave her world and everyone in it forever in order to be with Marco on Earth, only to find that the portal had already closed. However as it turned out, Marco had done the exact same thing in an attempt to be with Star.