What did Della need the money for in "The Gift of the Magi"?

Della needed the money to buy her husband Jim a Christmas Present.

Della and Jim are like many young couples: deeply in love, but completely broke. Throughout the year Della scrapes by, but on Christmas she wants to give Jim something special and he wants the same for her. On this memorable Christmas, they each get each other a very unique present.

Della desperately needs money for the present. She has done her best to...

Della needed the money to buy her husband Jim a Christmas Present.

Della and Jim are like many young couples: deeply in love, but completely broke. Throughout the year Della scrapes by, but on Christmas she wants to give Jim something special and he wants the same for her. On this memorable Christmas, they each get each other a very unique present.

Della desperately needs money for the present. She has done her best to save as much as possible all year long.

ONE DOLLAR AND eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied.

Della wants to use the Christmas present to demonstrate to her husband how much she loves him. She does not want to get him just anything. She wants to get him something special.

Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling—something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being owned by Jim.

Della does not mind making a sacrifice in order to get something nice for her husband. She sells her hair and makes twenty dollars. With that, she buys a special watch band for her husband’s favorite watch. She knows that the watch is his most prized possession.

Ironically, Jim is thinking the same way as Della. He wants this Christmas to be memorable for her. He buys her a gift for her most prized possession: He gets her a set of combs for her hair. As you can see, they know each other well. Unfortunately, neither realizes the sacrifice the other is willing to make to show how much they love each other.