#Gift of the Magi

[gavotte-paradisio]

The thought that inspired this:

Della: A platinum watch chain, what a sight!

Jacob, who happened to be in the area: Eh, I don't see the appeal.

Something something Meredith was holding the watch chain something something Meredith plays Jacob Marley something something chains

[its-short-for-jackalope]

🗣 DELLA WHERE'D YOUR HAIR GO?!??!

click for quality! (please)

reblogs = 🥰 / reposts = 😡

ohhhhh man. So the entirety of VHSCC has its grip on me, but especially this part of the show (Panic Attack: The Song, my beloved <3) and what started as a mindless sketch got my brain going and here we are 19 hours later, lol.

also Della and Jim now own a solid 80% of my heart??? I will absolutely be making more art of both of them and that is a threat.

if tumblr likes me today, there'll be an alternate version & close-ups under the cut! 😎👉🏻👉🏻

I spent so much time on the clothes patterns so please appreciate them lmao 🥲👍🏻

[shhhhimwatchingthis]

STARKID JUST UPLOADED THE FULL HOUR AND HALF CUT OF VHS CHRISTMAS CAROLS FOR FREE ON YOUTUBE

Thats the interconnected trilogy of Gift Of The Magi, The Little Match Girl, and of course A Christmas Carol

and if you haven't seen it live or ever bought the digital ticket...ITS SO GOOD

This is a temporary upload, a gift from Starkid in these tough times. WATCH IT NOW WHILE YOU CAN

can not stress how good and fun and heartwarming this show is!

[dickotomia]

for christmas i got eunuchized to buy my wife nipple piercings but she sold her boobs to buy me a cockring 😭😭😭😭

[pythoneon]

I like to envision the narrator of VHS Christmas Carols as a callused young adult who’s returned home for the holidays, reminiscing about how much Christmas spirit they used to have and finding it in the stories from their youth. Each story can also represent the stages kids go through regarding celebration. Matchstick Girl is the lost magic of the holiday season when they start to get old enough to understand unfairness in the world, Gift of the Magi is the struggle of young adulthood, and A Christmas Carol is the callousness that people can fall into, losing sight of what holidays are all about.

But they all have the same core message: the spirit of Christmas May have become about money, but the greatest gifts are found in the people who you hold close, regardless of financial circumstances. This narrator is finding that joy in them again through the past (matchstick), the present (gift of the magi) and future (christmas carol).

Clark you fucking genius

[awigglycultist]

I need share my favorite from the original gift of the magi with everyone

[iamnotdoinganythingillegal]

Peips peips peips peips peips

“I buy hair” is an actual quote from the source text

It’s genuinely amazing how it’s been over 200 years and this line still works just as well, as a completely matter of fact response to Della making a massive sacrifice

[jewellery-box]

P.J. Lynch. Front Art Cover for the book "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry in 1905.

[davytheshark]

Eargasms from watching VHSCCS for the first time

• Honestly every time Janaya opens her mouth

• The end of the hair/watch song where they overlap

• The ENTIRETY OF THE COLD CITY SONG (especially the overlap part)

• Just Ali’s voice in general is *chefs kiss*

• THE MOMENT I HEARD THE FIRST NOTES OF BAH HUMBUG

• “But before the morning LI-EET”

• “You don’t know what this cost!” “YOU DONT KNOW WHAT YOUVE LOST” 😭😭😭

• “ALL THREE SPIRITS WILL LIVE IN MEEEEE”

• AJs voice is a national treasure tbh

• WHEN THEY BROUGHT BACK ALL THE PREVIOUS SONGS

• The reprise of “the meanest man there ever was” but now it’s HAPPY 🥲

[angelwiththeblue-box]

youre more beautiful than ever

.

forced my family to rewatch vhscc with me and No i didnt cry at jim and della again Fuck Off

taglist: @blueskiesandstarrynights @lab-trash @jewishruthfleming @thedrowningpoetofdionysus @joshkiszkashusband @depressedtransguy @thedragonemperess @genuine-possum (lemme know if u wanna be added or removed)

[starcanwreckedpulp-doyoushipit]

do you ship it?

[gavotte-paradisio]

Just finished the Gift of the Magi portion of VHS Christmas Carols and:

-I've read the story, but the music and the acting make this version so much sweeter

-Jim's part of the watch/hair song and the What Did You Do To Your Hair song made me giggle

-Jim and Della vying for the best Starkid couple my gooood

[sspacegodd]

GIF of the Magi.

[bardraelyn]

The Gift of the Magi (a Good Omens meta)

If you’ve been following the Good Omens discourse, you’ve probably seen discussions around whether Aziraphale’s choice of the name “Jim” for Gabriel comes from either the cabin boy in Treasure Island or the titular character in the novel Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad.

But what if there’s a more subtle connection that viewers haven’t caught onto yet? And what if it’s a connection that Aziraphale intuited on a such a deep level he didn’t even realize it, the very moment Gabriel showed up naked on the his doorstep? And what if it’s a connection that has deep significance to his actions in the final 15?

Let’s follow this thought down the wooded winter path and see where it goes, shall we?

Before we proceed, we must first pause a moment to reflect on a classic O. Henry short story, which shares the title of this post: “The Gift of the Magi.” If you aren’t familiar with it, or if it’s been a while since you last read it, you can refresh your memory here (text) or here (text) or here (video). O. Henry lived from 1862 to 1910, and I’ve no doubt that Aziraphale would be aware of this author. What’s more, Neil Gaiman has read the work of O. Henry and has absolutely been influenced by it. I’m going to give the gist of the story below, but you really ought to familiarize yourself with the full work if for no other reason than to add to the angst I’m about to deliver.

So: “The Gift of the Magi” is the story of Della and Jim, a young couple who each sacrifice their most valued possessions to buy the other a Christmas gift that they deem worthy of the one that they love. Jim sells his gold pocket watch—a family heirloom that had belonged to his grandfather—to buy jeweled combs for Della’s beautiful long hair. Meanwhile, Della sells her hair to buy a platinum watch chain so that Jim need not be embarrassed by the cheap leather thong he’d been using when taking out his watch to check the time. In the end, both have sacrificed something priceless to give each other gifts that a neither can use. It’s a touching story, really, but also quite obviously tragic. Della and Jim both acted rashly, but also out of love, and in the end, it is that love that they treasure the most.

By now you’ve probably noticed something, but if not, let me draw for you the connections.

Jim arrives naked on Aziraphale’s doorstep. If there’s one thing we know about Gabriel, it’s that he's really fond of his suits. He not only mentions it in his chat with Aziraphale in the sushi restaurant in S1 and in the file that Crowley watches in Heaven in S2 but also visits his tailor in a scene that was in the script for S1 but never filmed. And why has Jim shown up on Aziraphale’s doorstep? Why, he’s trying to get to Beelzebub, of course. And what does Jim have of Beelzebub's? A fly in which to keep his memories. Like his namesake in “Gift of the Magi,” Jim gave up his most valued possession (quite possibly his only possession) to be with Beelzebub. And like Della, Beelzebub gave up a part of themself (one of their flies) to be with Gabriel.

And Aziraphale noticed it.

Now, if I’d spent four years waiting for the other shoe to drop after thwarting a major agenda of both my employer and their most significant corporate rival, the arrival of my old boss naked on my doorstep would absolutely set off alarm bells in my head. It clearly did for Crowley, and I’ve no doubt it did for Aziraphale. He didn’t have all the pieces yet and he couldn’t have known that Gabriel made a sacrifice out of love, but Aziraphale knew that the other shoe was about about drop and that a sacrifice of some sort was coming.

And to be clear, I’m not saying that in the moment when he landed on the name “Jim” it had any connection at all to the O. Henry story, because it could not have and didn’t—not to Aziraphale, anyway (as for a certain author by the name of Neil…well, we’ll probably never know)—but once all the pieces started falling into place, Aziraphale would almost certainly have noticed the parallels.

So then came his chin-wag with The Metatron, and the decisions he made during or immediately after. And once again we have parallels, and must wonder if the O. Henry story perhaps inspired them.

Because whether you believe our favorite anxious angel made the sacrifice to protect Crowley from a vague but definite threat or to buy Crowley back his angelic status, the reality is that Aziraphale gave up his most valued possession for Crowley. It was foolish, it was rash, and it was done out of love, but it was absolutely done for Crowley—because no matter how much Aziraphale wants to change Heaven, he doesn’t love Heaven enough to give up his bookshop. And how do we know this? Because in that same not-filmed scene where Gabriel visits his tailor, Gabriel and Sandalphon try to promote Aziraphale back to Heaven, and he doesn't want to go. He's only just purchased his bookshop, you see, and the grand opening is that afternoon.

So the question is, if Aziraphale is Jim in this scenario, and the bookshop is his pocket watch, what part of himself will Crowley, as Della (and coincidentally, the only one of the duo to have been shown with long hair) sacrifice for love of Aziraphale? Maybe his cynicism?

[spider-artdump]

[livin-the-squeem]

Christmas, 2023

ADAM: hey buddy I got you Pikmin 4

BEN: thanks i got you a book shelf because I know you like books

ADAM: oh I sold my books to get you Pikmin 4

BEN: What the fuck? Pikmin 4 is like $60 you get that after working 4 hours at a McDonald's you dumbass. Why did you sell your books for a fucking Nintendo switch game. Like if this was $1000 or something I'd get it but it's a $60 thing just ask on Twitter for money and say it would buy be a gift for fuck sakes the people who follow us on Twitter would eat that shit up have you read the fanfics?

ADAM: no I haven't read the god damn fan fics I'm not insane enough to do read lewd fanfics of me and you

BEN: they are not all lewd you dumbass, the lewd ones I send to my cousins

ADAM: That is very fucking weird

BEN: WELL YOU'LL HAVE PLENTY OF TIME TO READ FANFIC BECAUSE YOU SOLD ALL YOUR BOOKS FOR A $60 NINTENDO SWITCH GAME.

ADAM: LIKE YOU'VE READ A BOOK IN YOUR LIFE

BEN: AT LEAST IVE WATCHED MICKEY'S ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS AND WAS SMART ENOUGH TO JUST SPEND $300 ON A BOOKSHELF RATHER THAN SELL MY SWITCH.

ADAM: BEN I DONT EVEN OWN MANY BOOKS I OWNED 5 MOST OF MY BOOKS COME FROM THE LIBRARY THIS WAS GOING TO BE A POINTLESS GIFT REGARDLESS AND ALSO MICKEY'S ONCE UPON A CHRISTMAS WAS A REFERENCE TO GIFT OF THE MAGI WHICH YOU WOULD KNOW IF YOU READ BOOKS

BEN: I BOUGHT PIKMIN 4 MONTHS AGO DIPSHIT YOUR GIFT WAS ALSO POINTLESS BUT YOU DIDNT GOVE ME A GIFT RECEIPT DO YOU KNOW WHAT THOSE THINKS ARE? THEY LET YOU RETHRN GIFTS FOR MONEY. I COULD BIY A DIFFERENT SWITCH GAME