photo: nbc
The Office
Secret Santa
Original Airdate: Dec 10, 2009
Shannon – Associate Editor
shannon@thetwocentscorp.com
It’s time for the annual office Christmas party! There’s the unveiling of the undecorated artificial tree. Everyone is not impressed. Also, when did Jim get so lame? Oh that’s right, he teamed up with Dwight. Yeah, he has that effect on people.
Andy has been sending the twelve days of Christmas to Erin (his secret santa) who is getting attacked by all the birds. Sing the song. That’s a lotta birds! Erin can’t figure out who her secret santa is, and Andy doesn’t want her to find out, obviously.
Phyllis plays Santa this year and she’s thrilled about it. Of course, Michael has to rain on her parade by being Santa. Michael wants Jim to tell her she can’t be Santa, because he’s a big child. He also calls her “Tranny Claus”. Mature. Michael tries to get everyone to sit on his lap and it starts to get ugly. Jim starts to take a vote and everyone votes for Phyllis as Santa. Michael gets so mad he dunks his Santa hat in the punch. Michael has ventured into douchebag territory. Michael turns his Santa costume inside out and comes back in as Jesus but Toby tells him he can’t push religion at work. Michael calls him the anti-Christ.
Michael is so awful. As Phyllis/Santa passes out the secret santa gifts, Michael, still dressed as Jesus, makes rude comments about them on a karaoke machine. Andy had asked Phyllis not to divulge to Erin that she was his secret santa recipient but Michael does it.
Michael calls David Wallace to complain about the Phyllis/Santa situation but David tells him it’s not a good time. The company has a buyer and they’ll have no choice but to sell the company.
Andy apologizes to Erin who is not exactly gracious about it. Andy says he’s not giving up.
Michael apologizes to the group for ruining the party and then lets it slip that they’re going out of business. Michael uses some devious techniques to get through to David who tells the branch that they are not fired.
Everyone has a good time at the party and Michael apologizes to Phyllis. Everyone is leaving for the night and a bunch of marching band drummers walk up. It’s Andy and the 12 drummers drumming. It’s adorable and by far the best moment of the episode. Erin is amused by it as well.
I’m not sure how I feel about this episode. I mean, it was ok, but not stellar. I feel like the fact that I haven’t loved the rest of the season has skewed my outlook on this particular episode. So was it an ok episode or was it bad? Let me know what you thought in the comments! See you guys again in February!
TheTwoCents 
I thought it was a pretty solid episode, and I expect a lot from the Christmas episodes. All of the Jesus mic commentary was great and the whole Andy/Erin thing is pretty cute. Then again, I haven’t been as disappointed with this season as you have, so maybe we’re both skewed.
PS – I’m gonna miss David Wallace.
Yes, I’ll miss David as well.
The snark during gift time was great. I guess I never really thought Michael capable of such, but there you have it.
I think I agree that it was a solid episode.
It had good story lines, but I didn’t think it was a very funny delivery. I’m still disappointed by this show. It’s just not funny to me anymore.
However, I thought the 12 drummers at the end was a nice touch – best part of the episode.