History Main / GiftOfTheMagiPlot

* The final book of ''Literature/TheSaddleClub'' series has a three-way variation between the three members of the eponymous club. All three of them want to ride in a prestigious horse show a few days after Christmas, but it's a seventy-five dollar entry fee, their parents won't or can't pay, and Carole and Stevie are forced to spend their savings on a new bridle and new boots respectively (Carole's bridle was falling apart and Stevie's boots no longer fit), while Lisa didn't have the money to begin with. Meanwhile, SpoiledBrat Veronica [=DiAngelo=] isn't hurting for money, but is openly coveting Stevie's new boots and Carole's new bridle (both of which were the last of each item in the store), and has also missed the deadline to order the application form for the aforementioned show. Come Christmas, it's revealed that Stevie sold Veronica her boots to give Carole the entry fee, Carole sold Veronica her bridle to give Lisa the entry fee, and Lisa sold Veronica her application to give Stevie the entry fee. It ultimately works out for them; the show turns out to be a moot issue because the three of them and the horses get snowed in at Pine Hollow and would have had to miss the show anyway, Stevie and Carole use the money they got to buy back the boots and bridle, and Lisa decides to use her seventy-five dollars to treat the club to something special.

* [[DitzyGenius Miyako]] of ''Manga/HidamariSketch'' invoked this as [[PseudoRomanticFriendshipHiro and Sae]] exchanged gifts... [[CulturalCrossReference Of course nobody understood what she said.]]

* [[DitzyGenius Miyako]] of ''Manga/HidamariSketch'' invoked this as [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship Hiro and Sae]] exchanged gifts... [[CulturalCrossReference Of course nobody understood what she said.]]

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

* Webcomic/{{Nedroid}} knows [[http://nedroid.com/2008/12/beartato-135/ exactly]] what to make of this.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "White Christmas Blues", Lisa gives Bart a book for Christmas, not because she knew he would like it, but because she wanted to make herself feel good, which he calls her out on while burning said book. Lisa later makes up for it by buying Bart a kindle, which she got by selling her Angelica Button costume that Bart had given her. She states she got the idea from a book, "The Gift of Magi" which she downloaded onto the kindle so Bart can read it.

Compare TragicallyMisguidedFavor, DoTheyKnowItsChristmasTime, OuthumblingEachOther. SisterTrope to ChristmasEveryDay, YetAnotherChristmasCarol, HowTheCharacterStoleChristmas, AlwaysNeedWhatYouGaveUp and ItsAWonderfulPlot. Has nothing to do with TheGift.

* Subverted and lampshaded in a ''Anime/LupinIIIPartII'' episode, "Is this like the Gift of Magi? Because I hate that story."

* 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 loofa 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!"''

This is a SubTrope of WholePlotReference, PrizedPossessionGiveaway and SellWhatYouLove, and a multiple person subtrope of TwoRightsMakeAWrong.

* The original is discussed by Jeanne d'Arc Santa Alter Lily in her debut event in [[VideoGame/FateGrandOrder Fate/Grand Order]]. She's not a fan of the ending

* Subverted and lampshaded in a ''Anime/LupinIIIRedJacket'' episode, "Is this like the Gift of Magi? Because I hate that story."

* In ''Manga/PokemonAdventures'', [[WordOfGod the author]] says that he based Ruby and Sapphire's relationship off of this story. Except it comes off as a surprisingly cruel {{Deconstruction}}, as the two, at the tender age of ''six'', both sacrificed a key aspect of their own ''personalities'' in hopes that it would make the other happy after a certain tragedy struck and traumatized them. When they meet again five years later, they fail to recognize each other due to the personality swap and completely get off on the wrong foot.

A plot reproducing ''Literature/TheGiftOfTheMagi'', where two people buy a present for each other -- each gift meant to go with something the other highly values -- and then find that both of them had to sell their respective treasures to pay for the other's gift, making the gifts simultaneously priceless and worthless.

This is a SubTrope of WholePlotReference and SellWhatYouLove, and a multiple person subtrope of TwoRightsMakeAWrong.

* In one of his volumes of kidspeak, Rabbi Chaim Potak shares a letter from a young boy who sold his fancy and expensive calculator to buy ink for his father's beloved fountain pen. His reasoning is that his father's birthday is coming up and that his calculator's battery, which is a rare and hard to obtain type, has run out. When his father's birthday comes, he presents his father with his gift, only for the father to reveal that he has sold his pen to buy batteries for the calculator.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* ''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.]]
[[/folder]]

* The final book of ''Literature/TheSaddleClub'' series has a three-way variation between the three members of the eponymous club. All three of them want to ride in a prestigious horse show a few days after Christmas, but it's a seventy-five dollar entry fee, their parents won't or can't pay, and Carole and Stevie are forced to spend their savings on a new bridle and new boots respectively (Carole's bridle was falling apart and Stevie's boots no longer fit), while Lisa didn't have the money to begin with. Meanwhile, SpoiledBrat Veronica [=DiAngelo=] isn't hurting for money, but is openly coveting Stevie's new boots and Carole's new bridle, and has also missed the deadline to order the application form. Come Christmas, it's revealed that Stevie sold Veronica her boots to give Carole the entry fee, Carole sold Veronica her bridle to give Lisa the entry fee, and Lisa sold Veronica her application to give Stevie the entry fee. It ultimately works out for them; the show turns out to be a moot issue because the three of them and the horses get snowed in at Pine Hollow and would have had to miss the show anyway, Stevie and Carole use the money they got to buy back the boots and bridle, and Lisa decides to use her seventy-five dollars to treat the club to something special.

* The final book of ''Literature/TheSaddleClub'' series has a three-way variation between the three members of the eponymous club. All three of them want to ride in a prestigious horse show a few days after Christmas, but it's a seventy-five dollar entry fee, their parents won't or can't pay, and Carole and Stevie are forced to spend their savings on a new bridle and new boots respectively (Carole's bridle was falling apart and Stevie's boots no longer fit), while Lisa didn't have the money to begin with. Meanwhile, SpoiledBrat Veronica [=DiAngelo=] isn't hurting for money, but is openly coveting Stevie's new boots and Carole's new bridle, and has also missed the deadline to order the application form. Come Christmas, it's revealed that Stevie sold Veronica her boots to give Carole the entry fee, Carole sold Veronica her bridle to give Lisa the entry fee, and Lisa sold Veronica her application to give Stevie the entry fee. It ultimately works out for them; the show turns out to be a moot issue because the three of them and the horses get snowed in at Pine Hollow, so none of them would have been able to compete anyway, Stevie and Carole use their gift money to buy back the boots and bridle, and Lisa decides to use her seventy-five dollars to treat the club to something special.

* 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 loofa 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!"

This is a SubTrope of WholePlotReference and a multiple person subtrope of TwoRightsMakeAWrong.

Compare TragicallyMisguidedFavor, DoTheyKnowItsChristmasTime, OuthumblingEachOther. SisterTrope to ChristmasEveryDay, YetAnotherChristmasCarol, HowTheCharacterStoleChristmas, AlwaysNeedWhatYouGaveUp and ItsAWonderfulPlot.

* Parodied in the "Geeks of the Magi" arc in ''Webcomic/DorkTower'', where Matt and Igor are both fairly obsessive collectors. They find the perfect capstones to each other's collections, but they'd have to sell their own collections to afford it...except that because neither is actually willing to ''give up'' said collections, Matt raids the rent jar instead and Igor gets the money by stealing blood plasma from Carson and selling it[[note]]where he found a buyer for muskrat blood is a mystery for the ages[[/note]]. Ken [[INeedAFreakingDrink doesn't take it at all well]].

* 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.

* The original is discussed by Jeanne d'Arc Santa Alter Lily in her debut event in [[VideoGame/FateGrandOrder Fate/Grand Ordeer]]. She's not a fan of the ending