It’s a wonderful gift

“I understand you right enough,” the stranger said slowly. “I just wanted to make sure you did. You had the greatest gift of all conferred upon you — the gift of life, of being a part of this world and taking part in it.” ~ From The Greatest Gift, by Philip Van Doren Stern, the story that inspired “It’s a Wonderful Life”

One of my favorite Christmas films is the 1946 classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in which George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) sacrifices his own big dreams in order to help his family and others in his community. In his darkest hour one Christmas Eve, George contemplates suicide, but a guardian angel named Clarence (Henry Travers) intervenes to show George how his life has benefitted many people in ways he hadn’t realized. When he saves George, Clarence earns his angel wings.

“Each man’s life touches so many other lives, and when he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” Clarence says, imparting one of the film’s key lessons.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” wasn’t a success when it was first released. But today it’s considered one of the most popular Christmas classics, and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made. Though I’ve watched it annually since my dad introduced me to it decades ago, I wasn’t aware that the film was inspired by The Greatest Gift, a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern.

The Greatest Gift was the pick for my neighborhood book club’s December meeting, and I enjoyed learning more about its influence on Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

In the afterward of the Simon & Schuster gift edition, the author’s daughter, Marguerite Stern Robinson, recalled how her father wrote the short story.

“My father, Philip Van Doren Stern, was shaving on Saturday morning, February 12, 1938, while he explored the idea for the story The Greatest Gift….The idea had come from a dream he had. As he wrote in his notes: ‘The idea came to me complete from start to finish—a most unusual occurrence, as any writer will tell you, for ordinarily a story has to be struggled with, changed around and mixed up.‘ In contrast to his other writings, the idea for The Greatest Gift had emerged full blown, and he had never considered changing it. What he had to do, he said, was to learn to write it.”

The story was rejected countless times by national magazine editors. So, Stern self-published 200 copies of it in pamphlet form and sent them as Christmas cards to friends. He told his daughter that The Greatest Gift was “a universal story for all people in all times,” whether or not they celebrated Christmas. Later, Stern’s literary agent got the story into the hands of director Frank Capra — and the rest is holiday film history.

Near the end of our evening book club discussion, our host, Chris, asked us a final question: “What is the ‘greatest gift’ in your own life?” Our assignment was to keep that question in mind throughout the holidays.

My own answer came to me right away. The gift of community. Looking around Chris’s living room, aglow with holiday lights and filled with caring neighbors I’ve known for so many years, I felt a bit like George Bailey in Bedford Falls.

At the close of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” the angel Clarence gifts us all with a message in his Christmas note for George, which reads: “Dear George, Remember: no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings. Love, Clarence.” ~Cindy La Ferle

~ “It’s a Wonderful Life” airs this year on NBC, Tuesday, December 24, 8-11 p.m. ~