This cartoon by Kipper Williams from The Guardian relates to news that Internet retailers are gearing up for a bumper Christmas, with consumers forecast to spend £4.6bn online during the first two weeks of December, up from £3.7bn in the same period last year.
The scene takes place just outside Bethlehem (we can see the Star of Bethlehem in the sky). The Three Wise Men are shown ordering sheep online with a tablet computer. We can assume that they are gifts for the Baby Jesus.
COMMENT
In the Gospel of Matthew, the gifts offered by the Wise Men are explicitly identified as gold, frankincense, and myrrh, so I'm not quite sure why they are ordering sheep. Perhaps Amazon doesn't sell frankincense and myrrh—though I'm not sure they sell sheep either!
GIFT VS PRESENT
These two words are very similar in meaning and are more or less interchangeable in certain contexts. • I received some lovely gifts/presents for Christmas. However, present is the more informal of the two. • My parents gave me a present for passing my exams. A gift can also be abstract: the gift of sight. Another difference is that we say birthday gift or birthday present but we only use free gift and not free present.
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• Online retailers expect bumper Christmas (The Guardian)
