One of the first things that confuses the Herdmans is the impracticality of the Wise Men’s gifts. They can’t understand why they would offer expensive oil to a baby. Imogene says, “Oil! What kind of a cheap king hands out oil for a present? You get better presents from the firemen!” (46). At the pageant, they demonstrate their idea of a better gift. The narrator says,

It was a ham—and right away I knew where it came from. My father was on the church charitable works committee—they give away food baskets at Christmas, and this was the Herdsman’s food-basket ham. It still had the ribbon around it, saying Merry Christmas (75).

The Herdmans bring a ham meant for their Christmas dinner to show respect to the baby Jesus. The ham represents how seriously the Herdmans take the pageant and the truth that appearances can be deceiving. Despite their rough upbringing and temperaments, they give the ham as a symbol of generosity and inclusion in the town’s tradition. 

The Herdmans’ cat is an animal representation of the siblings: “It had one short leg and a broken tail and one missing eye, and the mailman wouldn’t deliver anything to the Herdmans because of it” (4).