25 best Christmas TV episodes to watch this holiday season
The Office – “Christmas Party”
Nobody does a dysfunctional office party quite like the Dunder Mifflin gang, so you have to expect their Christmas party to be an even bigger disaster than usual! In the season 2 episode “Christmas Party,” a Secret Santa goes awry when Michael doesn’t like the gift he gets after spending way more than the $20 limit on his gift.
Michael gets a big Christmas bonus for coming in under budget, so he gives the Party Planning Committee extra money and tells them to double everything. At the party, everyone is a disaster as usual, especially when it comes to the Secret Santa. Nobody knows what to get each other, so they all get some pretty crappy gifts: Oscar gets Creed a shamrock keychain, Kelly buys Oscar a shower radio, Toby got Angela a poster with babies playing instruments on it, and Creed forgets about the Secret Santa and just gives Jim an old shirt. Kevin got himself, so he didn’t tell anyone and bought himself a foot bath, and Jim was happy to get Pam, so he got her a teapot filled with inside jokes they’ve had together.
Michael wanted to show off his big Christmas bonus, so he bought Ryan an iPod Video, which was definitely more than $20 (and he made sure to “accidentally” leave the price sticker on it). He feels like a big shot, that is, until he opens his gift from Phyllis and isn’t happy with the oven mitt that she knit him. He storms out, then returns and decides Secret Santa is now a “Yankee Switch,” where everyone can steal a present from someone else.
The last minute “Yankee Switch” idea obviously backfires, since everyone bought the gifts for their recipients with that person in mind, like the “Kelly” nameplate Kelly got from Stanley. But Michael insists, since he clearly doesn’t want the knitted oven mitt from Phyllis. Obviously, the most popular gift becomes the iPod, which Pam ends up with (trading the special teapot from Jim).
When everyone finds out about Michael’s bonus and the vibe of the party gets a little weird, Michael leaves and comes back with over $160 worth of vodka to get everyone trashed, even though the company forbids alcohol at office parties. The party only becomes a bigger mess from there, and nothing sums up a messy holiday party more than a drunk Meredith walking into Michael’s office and taking her top off.