12 Days of Christmas Episodes: #7 The Office S2E10 "Christmas Party"

7. The Office Season 2 Episode 10 “Christmas Party”

©NBC Universal Television

This was The Office’s first Christmas episode, mainly due to the first season of the show being so short, however it is certainly one of the more memorable episodes of The Office. This is actually the first ever episode of The Office that I saw. I remember I was on holiday in the US with my family around Christmas and they showed this episode on the plane. I was a bit young to really enjoy the episode back then but now, after being exposed to Michael Scott a little bit more, I realise how good it is. 

This is just a classic episode of Michael sticking his nose into everyone’s business and, despite his good intentions, ends up ruining Christmas for everyone. After receiving a Christmas bonus from corporate, Michael decides to spend a bit more money on the office’s secret Santa than everyone else. This leads to him buying Ryan an iPod whilst he is stuck with a homemade oven mitt from Phylis. As a result he lets out some, let’s say insensitive, remarks about everyone else’s gifts as secret Santa gets turned into yankee swap.

As you can imagine a lot of mayhem and frustration occurs as a result of Michael’s behaviour and he gets frustrated that no one is enjoying the party like he wanted them to. So he decides to go out and buy way too much vodka to get the office drunk and happy. The results are somewhat as he expected and they end up having a relatively nice Christmas, by The Office standards. 

Another really nice part of this episode is the building of the relationship between Jim and Pam, with Jim buying her an amazing secret Santa gift. I think it is beautiful that the letter that Jim wrote to Pam telling her about how he felt was a plot line which they kept through until the final episode of the show, to demonstrate how much they loved each other. It almost proved that their romance really, truely started in this episode where she realised how much he cared for her. 

As a result we are given a Christmas episode which is both warm and romantic whilst also being awkward and hilarious. We get Dwight being normal suck-up Dwight, Michael being classic Michael and the blossoming of Jim and Pam’s relationship… what’s not to love?

Quote of the Episode: 

Michael: “Happy birthday Jesus, sorry your party is so lame.”