Office Ladies - A Look Back on Christmas Party

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

This week on Office Ladies 6.0, the ladies take a look back on “Christmas Party”. PPC, Yankee Swap, and the Tea Pot, that's right, it's a big one! The ladies chat about British director Charles McDougall coming on for this episode, the process behind choosing the right gift for Jim to give Pam, and "what are the right type of lights for a Christmas tree?". Then, Jenna and Angela break out their old journals for more insights into what was going on when they were filming this episode, and of course we couldn't not talk about that iPod and Michael's famous Yankee Swap line. Happy Holidays, enjoy!  Office Ladies Website - Submit a fan question: https://officeladies.com/submitaquestion  Follow Us on Instagram: OfficeLadiesPod Follow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on TikTok To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office rewatch podcast just for you. Each week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're the office ladies. Hi, everyone.

Ho, ho, ho. This is a big episode. It's the Christmas. Christmas episode. It's the Christmas episode, the very first Christmas episode of The Office. Season 2, episode, you know, it's not, we call it the Christmas episode. Yeah, we do. Or Christmas episode, but it is technically called Christmas party. What? Yeah, that's the name of this episode. I don't believe you. I don't believe you. No, I'm kidding. We did. We call it the Christmas episode. We call it the Christmas episode. Even though there were many more, this is the Christmas episode. I have so much to say, I have 12. typed pages today. It looks like you're holding like a mini phone book. I feel like I'm holding a one-act play or something. It's very large. And when I came in today, I will share that I refuse to speak to anyone because I said I was saving it for the mic. And I'm saving it for the mic. She did. I tried to make small talk with her. And she's like, I'm saving it for the mic. I was like,

okay, lady, you do you. I just, I'm just going to tell you, I liked your hair. I, you got little pigtails today and they're real cute. I have plats. What are plats? That's what they say in the U.K. They're like, oh, look at your plots. Oh, yeah, they also call Banks Fringe. I know, I like it. Yeah. I don't know if you notice my side of the table. Totally filled with note cards.

By my side of the table, you guys, I've made a buffet of note cards. Like, I actually have to be aware, like Sam is saying to stay in front of the microphone, because I have so many cards. I'm going to have to slide back and forth. Yeah. Down my buffet. A card. You love a buffet. I love a buffet, baby.

Even if it's note card. Give me that Vegas buffet. All right, Christmas party written by Mike Shreys. and directed by Charles McDougall. Here's a synopsis. It's Christmas at Dunder Mifflin. Today is the day of the office holiday party. The group originally plans to have a secret Santa gift exchange,

but when Michael doesn't like his gift, he turns it into a Yankee swap. This causes a multitude of confusion and hurt feelings, and Michael's solution is then to go out and buy booze, which is against company rules, and to try to get the party back on track. 15 bottles of vodka. That'll do it. Fast back number one, as I've already said, it's our very first Christmas episode.

But we filmed it nowhere near Christmas. No, you never do because you have to stay ahead. So you're always, it's like Christmas and July kind of thing. Well, we had a fan question from Sarah McGreen. Did U.S. cast members ever have Christmas parties or do a Yankee swap? And if so, what was the best funniest gift someone brought? A lot of people also asked if we exchanged gifts as a cast. Not at the holidays.

We would do what's called a rap gift, which happens at the end of the season, and we would usually finish filming our seasons in, like, what, April? And then the cast would get together and we'd pool our money, and we would buy the crew. Every member of the crew would get a gift from the cast. And then sometimes cast members would give each other rap gifts. Little individual gifts. Yeah. I did host a Yankee Swap Christmas party, and I did it every day.

every year for a few years. And I actually want to bring it back. I took a few years off because just, you know, life kids and, you know, stuff like that. Yeah. But I hosted a Yankee swap party every year. Oh, yes, you did. And it was a big party and everyone would come and it got so rowdy. Yeah. My favorite person to have at a Yankee swap party is Oscar Nunez. I was going to say Oscar. Oscar. He makes up chance. Like I remember one of the gifts was like a really lusciously thick, fake ponytail that you ended up paying. I took that home. Yeah, and Oscar like started chants like, ponytail, pony. I mean, they're not really creative chance, but you'd be surprised how much they catch on. I remember one year Lee brought a small hand axe. That thing was

the hot trade. Yes. I want to put it out there. Guys, if you're going to a Yankee swap, consider bringing a small axe. Didn't the next year Lee brought a brand new water hose? A garden hose. A garden hose. That was also a hot item. Really popular. Just like practical household items that maybe you need, but you haven't been buying yourself? Well, the next Yankee swap party I have, I'm actually going to include the kids because those were adult only.

Oh, yeah. And I want to do a family Yankee swap. Okay. Like an invite. The kids are such at the age where they're really getting into it. We went to one last year. But I want you to know, Jennifer, for all the people that used to come. So at the end of the night, there would be these crap gifts that people would not want.

and a friend of mine would, unbeknownst to me, hide them around my house. I remember this. And I would find them months later, like, because he really hid them. Yeah. Like, up, like, sort of on a top shelf by, like, the spare batteries would be like a weird porcelain clown. Yeah. You know? And Zach Woods brought this gift, and he said, Angela, I am the failure of Yankee Swap.

because he brought a Egyptian sarcastic... The King Tutte thing. It was a King Tut miniature sarcophagus. Yeah. That opened up and you could put things inside it. I fought for that. I thought it was really great. I loved that.

Well, it got traded a bunch and he was like, I don't think anyone likes it. I was like, Zach, you're wrong. I know I'm talking a lot about my Yankee swap party guys, but I was really inspired. Well, this is a side note about Zach Woods. You guys, he played Gabe in later seasons, and he became a good friend of ours. When my son was born, he did the same thing. He gave me a gift, and he said, I'm so sorry, I'm not good at buying gifts for children. I don't have kids yet.

I don't know. And it was this amazing astronaut costume that we still have today and used for dress-up. I think he's better at buying gifts than he was. I think you are, Zach, just FYI. All right, fast fact number two, this episode was directed by Charles McDougal. Oh, guys, do we have stories about Charles McDougal. I mean... First of all, he was British.

Yes. He's British. I'm bringing out the... Ccent, guys, I did my spin bike, and now I'm speaking like a Brit. He had directed before us the HBO series Rome, which, if anyone saw it, is about the Roman Empire and the killing of Julius Caesar. It is epic. It's also brutal. It's brutal.

They shot in Malta. There was chariots and horses and people getting impaled. Yes. And so he went from that to our quiet little Dunder Mifflin office. A little Christmas party. A little Christmas party. And you guys, the directors that had directed us prior to him were Ken Quapas, who might be the quietest human on the planet. Correct.

He says, you know, when he wants to start a scene, he just says, uh, go ahead. And when he gives a note, he'll say, Jenna, um, you know what, no, just go ahead. Yeah. That's Ken Quapas. Yeah. You all heard Paul Feig. Paul Feig is like, hey, hey, gang, how's it going? Hey, we're going to have fun today.

okay action yeah Charles McDougall rolls in we're all sitting at our desks quietly about to start the first scene and he goes wait brace yourself brace yourself brace yourself he goes actors action yes we I thought Phyllis ped herself a little I I tinkled I mean I was terrified I jumped straight up he was like action I was like oh my gosh what's happening what's happening is Tom Cruise through the ceiling any minute? I'm telling you that first day, the first moment of every scene, we all looked like deer in headlights. We would flinch.

We would flinch and then we would go into a scene. But then you guys, we just grew to love this guy. Oh. He would say things like we'd be working on a scene and he'd be like, all right, you know, let's go again. Actors, nearly there. Yes. Nearly there.

And then I... He one time said, he said, all right, everyone, that was good for. For cameras, actors, better this time? Yeah. Like, oh, okay. And then as we... We'll try to be better this time. As we got into the episode more and the party started, he would walk up to me to be like,

Angela, remember, you're really pissed. You're really pissed now. And he sort of, and I'm going to get into it. It's on a, it's on like four or five note cards. But he sort of highlighted the level of, I called it Angela's pissed offness. Yeah. And it had like, it was like building. to a crescendo. And so towards the end, he would just yell before a big take in the party. He'd be like,

all right, everyone happy, Angela Pist and action. Yes. It was amazing. It was amazing. I just think it's so interesting that he went from filming all these chariots to filming people in a circle. Yeah. Sitting in a circle. What was that like for him? On desk chairs. Yes. Okay. Fast fact number three. Vance, Vance Refrigeration. We meet Phyllis's boyfriend. Yes, her new boyfriend. He works across the hall.

He's played by Bobby Ray Schaefer. He went on to do 24 episodes of The Office, including our finale. So here's a little tidbit. Mike Scher, our writer, said that the way that Bob Vance always introduces himself as Bob Vance, Vance, Vance Refigeration, is based on a friend of his. Actor Hayes MacArthur, who he says, for years, would introduce. himself as Hayes MacArthur, Chicago, Illinois. Hayes, MacArthur, Chicago, Illinois.

You guys, you might know Hayes. He would later go on to star with Rashida Jones on Angie Tribeca, which was created by Steve and Nancy Carrell. Small world. Small world. But I feel comfortable sharing that story about Hayes because I know him as well. And Mike said it on the DVD commentary. So he shared that with us on set.

But since he put it out there, I was like, well, Mike, you already said it. So I'm going to share it here. Yeah. Well, you know what? I think that some people do that. I mean, I know in my hometown, you know, I'm from a very small town in Texas. And there are people in my town that we, no one ever says just their first name. I don't know why, but my mom's really good friend, her first name is Sue and her last name is Dean.

But everyone in the town calls her Sue Dean. Oh, yeah. Hi, Sue Dean. How are you, Sue Dean? It'd be like, Jenna Fisher. How are you, Jennifer? I'm good, Jennifer. I mean, so there are some people whose names just, you just do that.

Yeah. Well, we had some fans right in and ask, why does he always? say, Bob Vance, Van's Refrigeration. It was inspired by one of Mike's friends. I love it. Many people, before we go to break, many people wrote in to tell us that Mindy's Hair is down. I've, I've maybe not received so many notes. In this episode? No, it's down. No, it's partially up. It's partially up. Oh, well, Jennifer Dennett said that Mindy's Hair is down. Jennifer Dennett, I'm going to send you a screen grab. I mean, maybe she means down because it's not in the French twist. It's not the French twist, but she has had a few half up, half down. She's had a few half up, half downs. But I would say there's more down than up. Jennifer, there's more down than up. That's what she said. Well, I hope she doesn't say that. We would hope there's more up than down. All right, let's go to break.

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. So here we are. It's the holidays. Holidays are a time of traditions. I think when you think of holiday tradition you're usually thinking about, oh, how do we decorate? How do we exchange gifts? But I wonder if we should add something a new tradition to the holidays, which is the tradition of self-care. Oh, I like that. Right? Yeah. Because it can be a hectic and chaotic time. Absolutely. And also it can be a lonely time, you know? Yes. And prioritizing the tradition of self-care at the holidays, I feel like we need to add that to the list. I really like that. Well, you know, you're probably having to deal with a lot of folks around the holidays, and therapy can be a way for you to learn positive coping skills, how to reset your boundaries

or just set your boundaries and empower yourself to be the best version of yourself. So consider trying BetterHelp online therapy in December as a way to close the year with clarity rather than chaos. This December, start a new tradition by taking care of you. Our listeners get 10% off at BetterHelp.com slash Office Ladies. That's better, H-E-L-P.com slash office ladies. All right, so let's dive in here. We've got the cold open.

In the very first few seconds, Pam is stuffing the Christmas envelopes, the Christmas photo. Yeah. Right? She's doing the Christmas card, mass mailing. The Christmas card. I did this at 1-800 dentist. Oh, you did the 1-800 dentist company Christmas card mailing?

I did. I volunteered and you got to hop off the phone so you didn't have to talk to people about like their rotten teeth. Yeah. And I would go in the mail. room and they'd be playing Christmas music, and I'd have a cup of tea, and I would just stuff envelopes all day, and I was so happy. Oh, yeah. I did many, many mass mailings as an administrative assistant. I'd have to bind things, copy on both sides, collate, bind, and mail. I'm very happy

doing those things. Okay, but the photo was our cast photo that we took our Christmas photo. It was not our Christmas photo. What? Oh, yeah. It was, I, listen, I maybe got a little too obsessed with it, but I thought I recognized it. I screenabbed it. Me too. It's our season one publicity photo from the pilot.

You're right. Because I'm sitting in the front. Oh, my gosh. And we're not wearing any Christmas stuff. Oh, Jenna. Good catch. I totally just thought it was our Christmas picture. Well, we had a fan question from Pizuki.

Did anyone keep it? a copy of the holiday card Pam is stuffing into the envelopes at the beginning. Well, I don't have a copy of the card, but I have a copy of that picture hanging in my office. And I examined it against the card that Pam is putting into the envelopes. Well, remember in the pilot, who's my detective? Henriette. Thank you so much, CSI office ladies. Henriette is in that photo. Henriette is in the photo on my wall because she was in the pilot. it. They photoshopped Kate's head onto Henriette's body for the picture I'm stuffing into the envelope in this episode. I really want that card. Dang it. Yeah, because I can see it's Henriette's

hand on her hip in the sweater that's hanging in my office, but Kate's face. Way to go, Jenna. So far we've covered one second of the episode. That happens in the first one to three seconds. The next thing that happens is that Michael and Dwight enter with the tree. And it's, really way too big. That's way too big. It goes through the ceiling. I feel like this is a little nod to Christmas vacation. Yes.

You know, with Chevy Chase and that enormous tree. Yes. Well, do you remember when we were on set about three or four times when they pushed it up, the ceiling towel actually fell down and would fall on Steve's head? And then they'd have to brush them off with a little brush and fix his hair. There was little pieces of white sort of like particle-looking stuff all over the ground because the ceiling kept busting apart. Yeah. I loved that Kevin cuts the top of the Christmas tree with a paper trimmer.

Yeah. I just thought that was such a nice touch. Well, it makes sense. It's what we'd have. It's what we would have. Yeah. Okay, I did kind of an Angela thing. What's that?

Did you drink rosé during the day? I did not. But I did. I wrote down everybody's Christmas outfits. I love this. So did I. You did? Okay, let's do it.

Okay. All right. I noticed that Michael has a Christmas tie. Yes, he does. It has a Santa on it and some snow. man, go. Christmas, tie, Kevin. Yes, snowman, wintery scene. All right, you and I both only have a Christmas pin and Christmas earrings. You have Christmas ornament earrings. I have Christmas stocking earrings, and we both have a version of a Santa Claus pin. Interesting. We're dressed

kind of similar. Very similarly. What's that about? I don't know, but Phyllis has a full Christmas blouse and vest. I love her Christmas vest. My sister's a school teacher, and she does that. Like, I Christmas time, she wears all these Christmas sweaters and vests. You know I love this stuff. I've got all of it. My mom back in St. Louis, Missouri, every year, she goes to the local art fairs and craft fairs and she sends me Christmas hoodies, Christmas vests, Christmas pajamas, Christmas everything. I mean, those earrings could have been yours because you've come to my house at Christmas and you always have on Christmas jewelry. I'll tell you right now, I would never show up at a Christmas party and only Christmas earrings and Christmas tin. I mean, that is, I know. I know. I know. I

I go all out. You go all out. Oh, Oscar has a Christmas tie. Oscar has a Christmas tie. Stanley has a red tie. So I guess that's his attempt. Very Stanley. That's as far as he would go.

I'm actually surprised he went that far. No. For Stanley. I know. Also, Meredith has a crazy Christmas sweater. Mm-hmm. Yeah. See, if it were me, I would be Meredith or Phyllis showing up to your party.

Full outfit. I know. I've seen how you come to my party. I love it. All right. Okay. So in this scene. that's coming up, Jim reveals that he got Pam and Secret Santa.

He does. Can I, listen, Jim fans, you're probably not going to like me for saying this, but at two minutes, two seconds, in his talking head, he says, he wants, you know, he got Pam for Secret Santa, and he said because Pam wants a teapot so she can make tea at her desk. Yeah. And I wrote WTF, who makes tea at their desk? She would go in the kitchen. What is she going to do?

go to the kitchen, put the hot water in the teapot, carry it back to her desk, pour herself a cup of tea at her desk. Exactly. She's going to carry that teapot from the kitchen. What part of this is confusing you? I think is ridiculous. Okay. Here's her other option.

Okay. Yeah. She goes into the kitchen. Yeah. Oh, I see the breakdown. I see how your brain is tracking it and why it doesn't make sense. And also because I know you and you just put the tea bag right into the cup, which is a totally acceptable way to make a... I know some people let it seep.

Steep. Steep. Steep. Steep. With a tea. Let it seep on in there. You leave it in your pot. That's right. I said that the scene could be called something else. What could it be called? Instead of what's inside the teapot, it could be called Jim's got it bad. Oh. Because he saved two sauce packets from a few years ago. Yeah. That's someone who... has got it really bad. Okay. I, yeah, I feel like that could have been written a little differently, where Jim could have said a couple of years ago,

Pam did this thing with the hot sauce, and therefore I am putting a packet of hot sauce in there. The fact that he saved the two packets of hot sauce. For years. For years. He loves you. He loves you. He definitely does.

All right, well, I do have a lot to say about the teapot. So first of all, Phil Shea offered me a variety of teapots. before we started shooting in many colors. And I picked the teal. I love it. Yeah, I don't know. A little pop a color. The writers also said that picking what this gift would be,

the fact that it would be a teapot, provided a major challenge because they needed a gift that could hide other gifts that was really personal and that would be very stressful when Dwight takes it away from Pam. It could only cost $20, and it had to be something that Dwight really, wanted. And they said it was not easy. They spent a very long time because they knew plot wise what had to happen that Jim gives Pam a gift filled with secret treasures that Dwight also

wants to have that costs under $20. It took them a very long time to come up with teapot. For that reason alone, okay, fine, Pam can make her tea at the counter. She can steep some tea at her desk. Because when Dwight puts it in his nose, I know that's later, but it's so perfect. It is. It's I mean, they nailed it, right? They nailed it. And now this teapot is famous. I mean, all the time, people are using this teapot idea to propose to their loved ones. I see it all the time.

And my Instagram, people are tagging me. It's always charming to me. It's always so sweet. It is very thoughtful. So we mentioned the things that he's putting into the teapot. Here's a fan question. Taylor Rilling said, what is the significance of the pencil that Jim puts in the teapot? Yeah, he said, the story is too long.

So we have a deleted scene, and I remember shooting it. What Pam says when she picks up the pencil is she says, oh my gosh, this is the pencil I threw at you during minigolf. What? When did Jim and Pam go play mini golf? Maybe the whole office went and played mini golf. That seems like something Michael Scott would be like, we're going to play minigolf and we're going to raise money for my neighbors, like, whatever.

That's all I can think of is that there was some office outing where they went and played mini golf and I guess Pam got all feisty and threw a pencil at him and he saved it. So that's where the pencil is. And then, of course, he puts a card in the box and he says, because Christmas time is the time to tell people how you feel. Oh, yeah. That's so loaded. I have PPC next. Let's hit some PPC, the party planning committee. You know, Mike Scher also wrote the PPC.

in the Alliance. I think he likes the PPC. Oh, he definitely likes the PPC and their weird sort of power struggle. He loves it. Well, in this scene, we find out that Ryan has been drafted into the PPC. I can't believe that. I remember that. I can't believe that Angela Martin would recruit him, except that maybe she needed help, like, someone setting up things and moving things. Well, the Christmas party is a big one. It's a big one. Yeah. Yeah. But also, I noticed that Meredith is in there. Yeah. No, it's all hands on deck.

She probably has a bigger crew than just her core crew. Well, that's when Michael enters in his Santa beard. He throws down some cash because he wants a bigger, better party, and he reveals he has a digital camera and he will be taking photos.

Yeah, and he's going to put him in the newsletter. Most embarrassing one wins. Yes. I want you guys to know when Steve came behind Phyllis and I, and he was like, I want people making out, and he shoved her heads together

and was like, la la, la. That was an improv. That was improv. Yeah. Phyllis and I didn't know that was coming. He just did it in the moment. I was really proud that neither of us started laughing. I'm proud.

I was so proud of myself because there were a few times in that scene I almost broke and I was really fighting it. Oh, it's also in this scene, Angela, that it's revealed that Phyllis was in charge of getting the lights for the Christmas tree. And she said she got the little ones. Yeah. And you have a reaction to that? Well, that's not going to go over well later. That is not going to go over. So like I said, I listened to the DVD commentary of this. And Mike was really good on the commentary at breaking down some of his goals for the episode. And his goal for the episode was that Angela would get more and more and more stressed out every scene that we see her. And I think you can track that. Like as I was watching it again, I can totally see that. I have five note cards called Angela's Pissed Offness. Yes. That I'm going to start with time code soon before.

we get into all that, I do have to point out because I was texting with Kim Ferry, who did my hair for nine years on the office last night, this is the Angela hair braid. That is my actual hair that she had me bend over and braid. And of course, my character would want to wear it to the Christmas party. I feel like this was her special braid. For special occasions. For special occasions. And while we're talking PPC, guys, I have to say, Pam, Pam would probably. probably irk me too on this committee. What? I mean, at four minutes, 25 seconds, Angela is trying to put a tablecloth on this table. Pam is just staring at her doing nothing, not trying to grab for the tablecloth, help her spread it out, anything. And Angela just looks at her and it's just like, will you help me? When I saw that scene, I found it so satisfying. It's her little bit of defiance against your just crazy controlling. Yes, yes, just you're everything that's coming at her. And, you know, I told you, I go back and I read my journals, and I had written, and I also

have these old blogs, and I had written in one of my old blogs that filming the scene where I don't help you put the tablecloth on was one of my favorites of the whole episode. It's such like passive aggressive defiance. I loved it. I loved it. Well, Jenna, I went and found my MySpace blogs. So they're not online anymore. I don't know why. But I, so, but I guess I had printed them out at some point. Smart. So now I'm going to start going to them for each episode. And I did for this one, but I'll save it for a bit. Because it happens later in the episode. Okay, great. Fan question from small actor in a peacoat. Who kept the camera with all of the pictures that Michael took? NBC. Yeah, they were property of NBC, and they had them up on their website for a while. But guess what? You can still find them.

And Jenna and I were texting last night. We both found him over at office tally.com. Yeah. So you can see all those pictures that he was really taking pictures. Yeah, and they're really, like, not centered, and, like, people's heads are cut off. It's as if he just went around clicking away, but there's some real gyms in there. I know. Six minutes, 54 seconds.

Michael really, really shows what he thinks about Christmas, which is a gift should say, I love you, this many dollars worth. Yeah. Oh, this is not going to go well. Well, speaking of gifts, we have a scene where Toby reveals what he got Angela in Secret Santa. And it is the Jazz Baby poster. Yeah. I have that poster, guys. You have it?

That was one of my questions from Chris Cordova. wants to know, did you keep the baby poster? Well, there was about 20 of them. They made a bunch. One hung by my desk for years. Yes. Yeah. So we got to see it every day. And I have one. It's rolled up in a little poster thingy. Now, do you know the story behind that picture? Because I traded some text messages with Phil Shea. Mm-hmm. So Phil Shea had to make that poster. He did not buy that poster. He put out a casting call for babies. And two babies were cast, baby actors. He said it was really hard to find tiny jazz instruments. He said that was really difficult. In fact, he said, you know, Amazon didn't exist back then. You know, you couldn't just Google baby jazz

instrument. And they couldn't be fake looking, like they couldn't be like blue and pink. So he did eventually find them at a place called Hollywood costumes. He was particularly proud of the tiny sunglasses that he found. This poster ends up coming back in conflict resolution. Like you said, it stayed up there, but then it comes back again. It comes back again. I would like to know the two babies that were in the poster. Oh, guys.

Where are they today? If you are a baby from the baby jazz poster, will you please write to us at office ladies at earwolf.com? One thing about that baby jazz poster, I remember Mike Scher telling me that they thought it was really funny that Angela would really enjoy babies dressed as adults. Okay, where are we? Well, we're talking about the gifts,

and Mike Scher actually said that the gifts were incredibly hard to manage because they start off as Secret Santa, so everybody had a person that they bought a specific gift for, and then you had to track the gifts as they went around in the Yankee swap. He actually, in the script of this episode, there is a whole page where he lists the gifts. Who bought, who, what? And he did this for Veda, our script supervisor.

We haven't really talked about her, but Veda's job is to sit and watch every take that is filmed and make notes about everything that happens continuity-wise. So, I mean, like, really specific. So, like, if in a scene you take a drink of your tea on a certain line and then scratch your nose on another one, Veda writes it down. so that you do it the same every time for editing purposes. Yeah, Veda would come up to us and say,

Angela, you were holding that pen in your left hand in the first take, and in the second take you picked it up and held it in your right hand. So that's not going to match. So you need to pick which hand you're going to hold that pin in and do it in every take the same way. Yeah, because otherwise, when you edit it together, the pen is magically bouncing from hand to hand. So Mike was really worried about Veda in this episode,

and so he made this list just for Veda. And I have it from the script. Oh, fantastic. Okay, so this is what everyone was intended to give. And we got a lot of fan questions about this. Like a lot of people wrote in and said, you know, eventually Michael's going to get the paintball lessons from Dwight. But they're like, who did Dwight intend that to go to? So I have all the answers right here.

Are you ready? Yeah. Okay. Dwight got Phyllis, the paintball lessons and the pellets. That was his gift to Phyllis. Phyllis made Michael an oven mitt. Michael got Ryan an iPod. Ryan got Toby a book of short stories by George Saunders, who happens to be one of Mike Scher's favorite writers.

Toby got Angela the baby poster. Angela bought Stanley a picture frame. Stanley got Kelly a nameplate. Kelly got Oscar a shower radio. Oscar got Creed a shamrock keychain. Creed got Jim one of his own shirts. Jim got Pam the teapot, and this is something that got cut out. Pam made Meredith a drawing of the office.

I read about that online. Yeah, and there was this big thing. It's in the deleted scenes. This is something I have to tell you. I got a DVD player for Christmas. What? My husband got me a DVD player. So I got the CDs.

He bought me the CD set, and I got a DVD player. And last night, I got to watch all the deleted scenes. Oh, Angela, you must be so happy. I was so happy, and there's so many. Oh, yeah. There's so many. For the Christmas episode, you guys, there are so many great deleted scenes. I don't want to get us off topic here, but they're in the deleted scenes.

Meredith opens up her painting. That is from Pam, and it's a drawing of the office. Well, there's a big backstory here. Again, with Phil, I don't do Pam's drawings. People ask me that all the time. I'm not an artist. I mean, we've talked about this. have we, that I do cartoons. I do cartooning. She's very good at cartooning, and I have a few that you've

drawn that I've saved. I think you're fantastic. Well, I love my little expressive cartoons, but I needed Pam and wanted Pam to be a better artist than I am. So there is a young art student that does all of Pam's drawings. They went out to a bunch of people, like 12 different artists to turn in samples to be the artist behind Pam. And they picked. picked a young woman. Now, Jenna, I read, and you can tell me if this is true, I read that the first painting that they had for this episode to give to Meredith from Pam, that they had one of our set art people who was a man, do it. And when they looked at it, it looked too masculine. Yeah. And so then they went out to female artists to have a little bit of a softer touch.

Yeah. And there were something like 12 different artists who all submitted their work. And I wish I knew her name. Unfortunately, I don't. But maybe I can find that out and reveal that in a future episode. And then so finally, two more gifts. Meredith got Dwight some shot glasses from Cancun and Kevin got himself a foot bath. Guys, around five minutes, 55 seconds, there is a scene where Michael is talking to Jim at Jim's desk. This is when he reveals that he got Ryan for Secret Santa.

And I just want to say you see a ton of background action. Angela, you're walking from reception. Over Steve's shoulder, you see Toby and Mindy talking. Yeah. They are 100% not in character. Not in character at all. I saw that too. I was like, they're just talking about probably something in the writer's room or a story pitch.

Or they're just having a conversation. Yeah. I mean, Paul is just being Paul. Yeah. If anyone's curious, the difference between Toby and Paul, go to five minutes, 55 seconds. And you can see Paul and Mindy having a conversation in the background. Yeah, exactly. Tree lighting!

Okay. I have been waiting for this moment. The Christmas tree lighting, this starts the beginning of everyone happy Angela Pist. So this Christmas tree, the top of it has been hacked off by Kevin. It is covered in so much tinsel. Yeah. So much tinsel. It has a smattering of just blue and red ball ornaments. It's just not their best effort. And then it has the tiniest of tiny white lights, thanks to Phyllis. So Dwight makes a big deal of it. He like takes the outlet, like the plug. What do you call it?

The plug? The plug. He takes the plug from Stanley. He wants to plug it in. He's like just like Rockefeller Center. And everyone gathers around and it's like br-br-br-and-fil-And Phyllis is like, I'm sorry. And at six minutes, 38 seconds, you see my first pissed off face. Dang it, Phyllis.

It's also one of those moments where I feel like Angela's like, I knew it. knew it. I knew I couldn't trust her to do these lights. Why do I even have her do anything? Why do you have anyone do anything? Yeah. You can't let anyone do anything. These people are worthless. Exactly. You know, that Christmas tree light thing is based on a real thing from Mike Scher's life. I know. He said that when he and his wife got their first tree in New York, he bought a bunch of small lights for the tree, and he wrapped them around. And when he plugged it in, you couldn't really see I love that. I love when writers work those little moments from their real life into the show.

I thought, speaking about people who are acting like themselves instead of their characters, I thought Jim's talking head about Creed's gift is so John. It is John. That is John right there. Yeah. The delivery, the smile, all of it. And then, of course, Creed's talking head made me laugh so hard. Creed is very funny in this episode.

I mean, everybody has some great moments. but Creed cracked me up a bunch in this episode. So now Secret Santa is starting. Yep. And everyone is gather around in some office chairs. And I want to say truly, I know we were joking about Charles McDougal, but the amount of energy and movement that he uses the camera to give this scene of people sitting in a circle, I mean, it is impressive from a directorial standpoint. I think, like, I don't want to be crazy, but I think, like, film student. should study this portion of the episode because I'm imagining myself trying to film a group of

people sitting in a circle doing a gift exchange and it would not look nearly this dynamic. It's really, really impressive directing. No, he's great. He is really great. Okay, so we're starting the Secret Santa and Pam opens Jim's teapot. She loves it, but Dwight moves things along so quickly that she doesn't have time to look inside or notice the card that's in the box. Yeah, Dwight wants no chitty chat between gifts.

He's like, go, go, go, go. He's me coming in today. He is. He's like, save it for the mic. So he's moving things along. So it's Pam. And then the next one, we find out that Michael buys Ryan a video iPod that costs $400. You guys, this was not product placement. It was not so many people wanted to know. Yeah. We were not paid. It was just sort of a really cool topical gift at the time. Yeah. And they were trying to think of a gift that would sort of be a showstopper that Michael would think was very impressive, that every. one would want. So this was coincidence. We weren't paid to use it. So I read that, that

well, here's something. A ton of people wanted to know who kept it at the end. Nobody. We weren't allowed to keep any of the stuff. It all goes into a giant warehouse and it gets labeled for the episode for props because if for some reason we have to go back and reshoot something, they take it off the shelf and they bring it back in. That's true. I don't know what happens after it's been in the warehouse for a while, but it just goes to prop house storage. I feel like it's still in a box labeled The Office Christmas Party. It probably is. There was a fan question from Beard Up, Beard Down.

Was the iPod sponsored by Apple? It wasn't. We said it was not. It's just a total coincidence. But there's more coincidence. So the week after this episode aired, Apple revealed that you could now download episodes of the office onto these video iPods. Again, this was not planned. And then the office became the number.

one downloaded show on iTunes. Yes. The number one downloaded show. I remember Rayne Wilson turned to me and said, I think we're going to make it. I think we're going to, this was the first moment. It felt like the tide was turning for us and that we might not get canceled. All right. So next up, Michael gets his gift, the oven mitt knitted by Phyllis. Now everyone had a $20 limit, you guys. That's why this iPod really shakes everything up because he spent $400. Yes. Yes. And he has his line where he says, I only, he says out in the hallway, he's holding the mitt. And he says, do you know what this says? This says, I only care about you a homemade oven mitt's worth. He is such a child. He is such a bratty kid in this episode. Oh my gosh. Well, we had a fan question from Chelsea, Raconza, and Amanda, and many others, actually, who actually knitted the oven mitt. Well, I asked Phyllis, she does not knit in real life. Although she told me that she knitted a scarf for her mom a couple of years ago, but she said that's it. She didn't, oh, just one scarf. I want you guys to know, you know how we talk about what was at everyone's

desk? So at Phyllis's desk, like sitting on the floor sort of next to her desk for so many years was a whole knitting basket. Do you remember? It had all the yarn and the knitting needles and it sat there as if her character would ever do anything with it. But it was established there and it sat there. Well, Phil Shea told me he found a woman at a knitting store in Valley Village, California, and she knitted the oven mitt. Again, oven mitt knitter, if you're listening, please write us at OfficeLadies at Earwolf.com, and we'll give you a shout out. You knitted the famous mitt. I thought it looked like a great oven mitt, and it had like the little like a, like the Teflon-a-thony thingy on the one side. Yeah. Yeah. So Ryan gets the iPod, and at eight

minutes, 24 seconds is the next phase of Angela pissed offness. Okay. You see my face at the fact that Michael spent $400 when the limit was 20. All of my instructions, I'm sure I sent out an email about Secret Santa and the rules. So one, Phyllis has ignored my request for bigger lights and got the tiny lights. Now, two, Michael has spent $400 instead of the agreed upon $20. So we're ramping up. She's just getting ticked off. I have no doubt that you sent a very detailed email about this to everyone with a follow-up reminder. Mm-hmm.

Which is why Kevin does not come forward when he gets himself, because he would have had to tell me. He would have. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know what? I really relate to Angela on so many levels. Listen.

Really do. On some levels, you're way more Angela than I am. Oh, yeah. I mean, I would have generated two, three, four very detailed emails about. the party, the plans. If I assign someone to do lights for the tree and that's what I got, I would feel so pissed and let down. If people went over the $20 budget, you would have been furious. Furious. Because you would have been like, what's the point? Why even have that number? Is Angela wrong? No, I don't think she's wrong. She's just, you know, why is no one helping her?

She's a buy-the-book person. Why can't people follow the rules? I agree. So at nine minutes, 39 seconds, she gets pissed off on a whole new level because, as you were saying, this is when Michael is really ticked off that he got the oven mitt and he switches the party. No more secret Santa. He says, now we're doing Yankee swap. Yes. Yankee swap slash white elephant slash, what was the other one he said?

Nasty Christmas. Nasty Christmas. You know, there was actually a little debate about. what do you call it? And people were like, well, we call it white elephant. And someone else was like, we call it Yankee Swap. And I feel like the writers took that and put it in the episode. Yeah, I know it as Yankee Swap. What do you know it as? I knew it as White Elephant. Yeah. I think it's good they did that. They covered everybody. They covered everybody. But when I threw my Christmas party, I called it Yankee Swap, just because I loved it so much.

You know, here's something that I heard in the commentary, Angela, since we're talking about your character. I guess that you had a talking head in the fire. I watched it. it because I have a DVD player now in the deleted scenes. Well, Mike said that the writer's room was so impressed with your performance in that talking head that they put a card on the wall that was Angela cries and they wanted to find an episode where you could cry a bunch and this was it. Mike sure told me, he said, I love to see your character cry. He said she's so pulled together that when you sort of fall apart, it's like really sort of oddly pleasing. Oh, I love it. I love it. So yes, at 9 minutes, 51 seconds, I have a talking head. And my character

is really upset because she feels like Michael should have talked to the PPC first. Yeah. Well, they should have. And then she breaks down. So she is really starting to spiral. And then when we cut back to the scene, she's still sobbing. I mean, she's not sobbing, but she's still crying. She's sullen. She's very sullen. Okay, you know this famous line, Yankee Swap. Yeah. From Michael.

All right. Mike Scher, that's a written line. That wasn't improvised that Steve would say Yankee Swap. And Mike wrote in the script, in parentheses, crazy voice. And he was like, I know Steve will do something great with that. And that was Steve's take on that. Because they would do that. They would sometimes put little pieces of direction in the script for us.

and then we'd have to interpret it. Yeah. Guys, did you notice in this episode, it is snowing outside? I loved this touch. I loved that they kept cutting to the windows and there'd be snow. Do you remember how much fun it was to have the snow? We were so tickled by the snow. We were so excited.

You guys remember we mostly just filmed inside and we never even saw outside or what was happening outside. Yeah. And so the fact that we had this extra element happening was so fun. We really did film inside in a windowless warehouse. All the windows were fake. They just had backdrops behind them. So to see actual sunshine or snow or air was really exciting to us.

I have a ton of facts about the snow. I don't know if anyone else will find it interesting, but I had written all about it in one of my blogs slash journals. I'm living for this. I can't wait to hear about it. I do have to pee. Oh, do you want me to give you some snow facts when we come back from the break? I mean, can I go pee?

You should be on an empty bladder when I lay these awesome facts on you. You don't tell me or my bladder what we're doing. Well, what do you want? Do you want full bladder snow facts or empty bladder snow facts? I want empty bladder snow facts. All right, that's what I'm saying. Oh, I thought you were telling me that I had to not drink any more water or tea. When we go on a road trip, my husband will be like, can you not get an ice tea?

Okay, clearly you're projecting some other thing on me because I said I thought you should empty your bladder for the snow facts. She's leaving. First, you push away from the mic to eat your, your, your, snack. This is for you, Jenna. So disgust. Love our honeynut Cheerios. Oh, God. Thank you for letting me have my bathroom break. I want to hear all about

your snow. All right. I hope this is an anticlimactic for people, but the company that came to make the snow is called snow business. I love that. Snow business. I remembered. I remembered that. It's so tickled me. Okay, so here's how it works with fake snow. There's a guy from snow business. He shows up. Now, the snow that falls from the sky is different from the ground cover snow. The snow on the ground is snow. The snow that falls from the sky, I know because it falls on my character at the end, and it is not snow. It's not snow. It's soap. Yes. You can get a choice. You can get a choice of cornstarch, plastic, or soap.

And Greg watched a demonstration of all three, and he picked soap. Well, when by accident a little piece of that might get in your mouth, it tastes like soap. Because I shriek, and a piece of it went in my mouth. That's what? Yeah. She said. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. On the ground, though, it's real snow. And they bring this machine, and I don't know exactly how it works, but it's kind of like, like a wood chipper, but in it in reverse. It looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss. It does. It really does. And it really blows snow. I guess that's what it looks like.

It looks like a snowblower, but it generates snow. And then it just blows it all over the ground, all over the cars and all that stuff. But guys, remember, this is like, we're shooting this in like October in Los Angeles. And it's hot in October. It stays warm here. Yeah. In the daytime, it's still in the mid-80s, 90s. But it was night.

And so we had a little bit of time with it. I mean, it was still warm out. Yeah, it was probably like in the high 60s. Yeah. That sounds about right. But yes, we were very excited to have snow. And Jenna, we're... Did you like my snow facts?

I feel a little vulnerable about them now because we set them up so much. I mean, there was like a break and in my head about it. I like your snow facts. Snow business. That's cute. I think snow business is really cute. All right. But let's go back to the gift exchange.

This is when Kelly gets Angela's poster. But, Angela, you do get to take it back. Okay, here's the thing. I wrote in my MySpace blog about this moment. And I wrote that it was one of the hardest things for us to get through as a cast that the first time Mindy unrolls the poster and looks at it. and we all see it. We all, every person lost it. Because it's so ridiculous. It's so ridiculous. We had not seen it. It was an actual surprise to us while we were filming and we all lost it. I had that in fact,

it was particularly hard on rain for some reason. And that in one take, he broke three times because he could not get through it. I can't believe that Mindy was tasked with having to unroll that poster how did we ever get a shot of her not laughing i don't know but we were cracking up there's a little detail in that scene that made me laugh when i rewatched it which is how you you just very subtly swat the oven mitt away on your way to getting the poster that was all me thank you very much i loved it it was such a good detail i loved it um well in tracking the oven mitt Meredith eventually takes the oven mitt. But, you know, Michael has to then call her a sucker and say that he wanted her to take it. And it was reverse psychology when he said he wanted to keep it. I love that he decided that he needed to break down reverse psychology to all of us. Because I don't know if you've heard of it. This is a pretty cool thing. I'm like, Michael, you're such an idiot. Do you remember how Phyllis cried during that scene? Yeah, she stayed in like sort of that. sad place. She cried for like a half hour and in between takes of that where she had to be

crying. She didn't want any of us to talk to her. And Kate and I tried to go up and give her a hug. She didn't want it. Like she was in this like actor zone. It's so hard to do. It's so hard to do. I know exactly where she was, but I just remember being really worried for her because when you see Phyllis cry, it is, ugh. You don't want to see Phyllis cry because it breaks every part of you open. I mean, I mean, she did, she wanted, she had to stay sad. And it is really hard, especially sitting in this circle with people cracking up about a baby poster.

Yeah. But you've got to stay sad. Yes. It's hard. It's really hard. That is very difficult. Well, here's the thing. Michael just gets progressively meaner, you know, he calls Meredith a sucker.

And then Dwight, you know, he opens the paintball. And he's like, you know, how is this better than an iPod? And this moment kind of broke my heart, too, when Dwight goes, I never said it was better, you know? Wait, I have an Angela pissed off in this moment. Oh, okay, go. At 13 minutes, 58 seconds, look at my face. I wrote it in all caps. So Michael has just called Meredith a sucker because she got the lame, you know, oven mitt.

And Phyllis storms out, okay? She is completely heartbroken now. And the party is falling apart. and the look on my face is just sheer and like rage. Now, are we at the top of your rage now? No. Oh, no. Well, I mean, I know we've still got the parking lot, but.

No. Oh, no. There's a moment coming and you'll know it. It's the, there's a one-two punch coming at the end for my anger. But yeah. All right. So people are making trades and feelings are getting hurt. Yeah.

And Pam does not go back and get the teapot. she gets the iPod. She does. When it's Pam's turn to pick again, she picks the iPod instead of the teapot. And Jim is so hurt. He's so hurt. And I, you know, I watched this and I was like, come on, Pam. But then, you know, Pam doesn't know what all is in the teapot. She doesn't. And that's what sort of justified it for me. She's just like, this is an iPod. This iPod has completely hijacked this whole fun party and gift exchange because everybody who's sitting in the seat is just thinking about trying to get the iPod. And so is Pam. Unfortunately, I think she kind of forgot about the teapot. So it was her time to pick. She was just like, iPod. But she also doesn't know what's in the teapot. She doesn't. She doesn't know how high the stakes are for Jim. No. She doesn't. I think it's kind of an innocent moment, honestly. And Michael has ruined all of this because the gifts were specific for people. I mean, Ryan gets a placard that says Kelly. Yeah. He gets like, you know, a desk, whatever, nameplate. Yeah. Like, these were not meant to be Yankee swap gifts.

were not. They were meant for certain people. Well, at this point, the party has completely broken down and Michael goes to the liquor store. Now, I want to point out a few things. I know what you're going to point out because, lady, I have the DVDs now. So go, do it? Do you know what I'm going to say? Is it about the attendant at the liquor store? I have one thing to say about him, but I just thought I wanted to point out that it's also snowing outside the window of the liquor store. Yeah. They made it snow there too. I don't know. Nice detail. Nice touch. Good continuity. Veda was on it. Well, I read that our rioters found out in Pennsylvania that if you work at a liquor store, you have to wear a tie. Yes. And so that was part of this character description is that he had to have on a tie. Isn't that great?

And I thought the actor, his name is Ryan Martin. Did a fantastic job. He just really like takes in all of that vodka. Fifteen bottles. Fifteen bottles. craziness. Okay. So then we go back to the party. Michael brings all this vodka back into the party and at 16, 10 minutes. This is the next phase of Angela. Angela's spiral. Oh, say it. So Michael has vodka. And she's like, what are you doing? There's no alcohol at the party. You know, Angela speaks up and Toby speaks up. No one else cares. But now she's like, Toby speaks up. I missed that. Yeah. Toby's like, Michael, we really shouldn't have. And he goes, just shut it, Toby.

It's a party. But then later, I feel like Toby brings Todd Packer a drink. Well, no, it's all, like, all bets are off at this point. And, you know, you have to remember that Michael told the party planning committee that he wanted this Christmas party to be like, and I quote, a Playboy Mansion party. Yeah. That was his hope. That's his goal.

That's his goal. So, but yeah, Angela is now super ticked because now there's alcohol. I'm surprised her whole head didn't explode. Well, it's about to, because the next two are what set it into motion. Oh, boy. Well, now we have the scene where Jim is trying to get the teapot back from Dwight. Jim offers to trade him the shamrock keychain, and he says, come on, it'll be good luck. And that's when Dwight has his line.

A real man makes his own luck, Billy Zane, Titanic, and Angela. You made the entire cast T-shirts with that quote on them, and I still have mine. Oh my gosh, you do. I do. It's a gray long-sleeve t-shirt. Yes, with black writing. Just a quote across it. Yeah.

So I had a friend at the time who had a t-shirt press because she had a small business. And I loved this line so much. I thought it was hilarious of all people for Dwight to quote. It would be Billy Zane. Well, people were asking if we gave each other gifts. That was a gift. You gave that out. I think you actually gave that out at Christmas that year.

I did. And you gave everyone an ornament. Yes. I got that cast photo and I had it printed on an ornament for everyone. Yeah. Aw. The idea that Dwight wants to keep the teapot in order to wash out his nasal passages with green tea is based on something that Greg Daniels has actually done. Like with a netty pot?

Yeah, I mean, but I've never put green tea in a nutty pot. I haven't either. I've only used the saline solution that is recommended. But I could see Greg reading about it and giving it a try. But Rain, the way Rain was in that scene. And he, like, shoved that teapot into his nostril. Yeah. And just John's face's gym is just like, are you kidding me?

That's who gets my teapot? Like, it's so perfect. He's so bummed. Now, when I watched this with Lee, Lee said he wondered how Dwight didn't find the note in the box. Or how Dwight didn't open up the teapot. I thought of all of those things. I thought Dwight now has the cassette and the sauce packet. I mean, so you have to sort of suspend belief, I guess, at that moment that he took those out and just shoved him aside.

Like, hmm, what's this crap? And just sort of shoved him aside in the box? Well, also, I don't think Jim is trying to get the teapot back for Pam. I think he's just trying to get the teapot back for himself. He's just going to keep it now. That's what I think the motivation is there because Pam is over. you know, up at the desk with Roy looking through her new iPod. I think Jim just wants to get it back because I think there's things inside it that are embarrassing.

Yes, exactly. But he's going to trade the keychain and he's just going to take that teapot home now. So Pam is up at reception and she's showing Roy her new iPod. He's now at the party. He wasn't there for Yankee swap. But he's all excited because now he doesn't have to buy it for Pam for Christmas. He was going to buy her this iPod, he tells her. And now he doesn't have to or he's just going to get her a sweater.

Thanks, Roy. Now the party is like 15 bottles of vodka in. Todd Packer has showed up. Oh, yeah. It's getting crazy. And everyone's doing shots. Angela's fuming. I am fuming, but the icing on the cake of my pissed offness is about to happen. Oh, say it. Michael shouts to the whole bullpen. He says, oh, my gosh. Yes, Ryan, the king of the party planning. Oh. Thank you to, thank you to Ryan for this awesome party. and the camera pans to me, and I am livid. Ryan the temp, the king of the party planning committee? Are you kidding me? Yeah. Oh, that's it. She is pissed.

Oh, no. And it's only going to get worse. That's not even still the worst thing that's happened to Angela. Nope. I had a headache by the end of this episode. You must have. You were just scowling and pushing anger out of your temples this whole episode. You know when Todd Packer shows up and he has that line,

What's up, my nerds? My nerds. That was an improv, sort of. In the script, what was written was, what's up nerds. And he just gave it that extra special touch of what's up my nerds. I know. Well, that's also Dave Kekner. I mean, I think even the line when he's like,

Packer need a drinkie. Yeah. The line was probably like he was getting me a drink. Yeah. You know. He brought so much to that role. It was amazing. Well, you know when he has to lay down on the desk and get the silly string on him, like when he

passes out? I remember shooting that. He had to lay there forever. So he laid down on those desks, which were not comfortable, right? And then they silly stringed his head. And then we had all these scenes where that's what he's doing. Well, if he got up, all the stuff that he was decorated in would have fallen off, it would have been impossible to recreate.

So he had to just lay there, even when we were on a break. even when we were on a break and he was such a trooper talk about a trooper and i wrote in my my space blog that kate and i because kate and i knew dave from improv days we had all like done improv shows together that kate and i walked over and talked to him while he had to lay on his back and we just sort of like caught up and that it was so fun to see him but i want you guys to know if you're wondering what todd packer looks like at 20 minutes 19 seconds to really paint a picture here yeah he's laying on his back kind of across a desk area partition, right, in the middle of the room. He has blue silly string on his head, Christmas lights around his torso, Christmas garland around his torso, Dwight's desk nameplate on his stomach, and there's like a red, empty solo cup kind of just like in his, like the crook of his arm. And he had to lay like that with all those things on top of him.

He passes out so quickly. You have to imagine he showed up already half drunk. You know he did. You know he did. You know he did. Okay, guys, so now we have the scene where Pam reveals to Jim that she got her teapot back. She trades Dwight, the iPod for the teapot, and now she's going to look inside and find all the items. And it's very charming and sweet, and she is so delighted.

But in this moment, Jim secretly steals the note back and puts it. it in his pocket. I know. He lost his courage. He did. Now, when we reached out to fans to ask them what they wanted to know about the Christmas episode, I would say that about 80% of the comments and emails we received were along the lines of what is in the teapot note. Because as you know, in this episode, Pam does not read it. It is not revealed. But then, in season nine, there's a scene where Jim has the documentary film crew put together footage of their romance and he shows it to Pam and Pam sees that there was a note that Jim steals back and then he hands it to her and she reads it. How brilliant is that? And you know who that is? That's Greg Daniels. Yeah.

Because he was such a master at beautiful callback moments. I love that. Well, from the time that Jim stole the note, it drove people crazy. They always wanted to know. know what had been written in the note, would Pam ever get the note? For years and years, will he ever give her the note? Around the time of the wedding, people wanted him to give it to her as a wedding gift. Greg saved it till the end. I'm going to say something that I've never said before. I also feel like I'm maybe going to cry. What? Wait. Wait. What? Are you going to say what was in the note? Are you going to say what was in the note? Sort of. Because I don't know what was on that card.

None of us do. I'm the only one who knows and John knows. Oh my gosh, lady. In that episode in season nine, I believe Greg suggested to John that he write a personal message from himself to me just saying what our time together on the office meant to him. Oh, Jenna. Because we were wrapping up filming.

We were wrapping up the series, and we were all so emotional at that time, you know? It was all, we were all sort of saying goodbye in different ways. We were. And so that was his goodbye. Very similar to when we film that scene with Steve, where I said goodbye to him at the airport, and Paul Feig told me, just run up and say goodbye to your friend, Steve. Jeff Blitz said the same thing to me when I was in the car with Oscar and I say I love Dwight

he said Angela in this moment express your love for the show and everyone and if you couldn't have it in your life anymore and I disintegrated Yeah so I'm on camera and I open up this note

that John's written me and I just start crying I just start bawling It probably, the first take was probably not usable. It was the sweetest note. And, you know, on camera, Pam says, I'll never say what it said, but just know it was perfect. Well, I'll never say exactly what John wrote, but I will say, just know it was perfect. So that's what was in the teapot note, guys.

It was a, it was a note from John to me. A personal note about what it meant to work with you on the show. Yeah, about our time together on the show. And it was really sweet. Well, that would completely wreck me. Yeah. Oh, I love that. I didn't know that. Are you okay? Yeah. Well, crap, how do we talk about anything else? That was so beautiful. I'm sorry. That was so beautiful. I love that that was the direction that Greg gave. Those moments became very honest for us under that kind of direction.

Yeah. And we all had little moments like that. That's a really big one, though. Well, there were those moments on the show that were surprises. Steve didn't know I was going to run up and tell him that basically that same thing, Steve, I'm going to miss you, you know, all the things that I said to him. Oscar didn't know the note that Jeff Blitz gave me. Yeah. So when all that emotion came, it was very, like, completely out of nowhere for him. Yeah. Okay.

Well, geez, Louise. I'm sorry. That's okay. Where are we at in this episode? Well, we're at the moment when Kelly approaches Dwight in the kitchen. Kelly, that hussy. Oh, with her hair half down, half up. I know.

She goes up to my man and lays one on them. She does. And Angela sees it, and that is it. You know, a lot of people wrote in and commented that you're standing in front of a poster that says commitment. Am I really? Yes. Oh, my gosh. I didn't even notice that.

That is so funny. I think I was just so focused on the scene. Wow. Yes. Angela loses it. Loses it. And this takes us outside. She's left the party. And now I have some stuff to tell you guys about this scene. All right. 20 minutes, 16 seconds. The ultimate Angela pissed offness has happened. So here's some behind the scenes of this scene. You have a guy up on the roof and he's got the soap snow that he's going to fall in your eyes. He's going to, yeah, it's stinging. And then there's snow on the ground because they've put real snow on the ground. We filmed this scene at the end of the day and everyone had gone. It was just me and Charles McDougal, Randall Einhorn, and Mike Scher. So it was just kind of a skeleton crew at this point. Those are always some of my most favorite shoots. Yeah, me too.

And we did not have a lot of time. We didn't have a lot of time to get this. The clock was ticking. Yeah, exactly, because we didn't want to go into overtime for everyone, and it was the end of the day. And so Charles McDougal said to me, we're probably only going to do like two takes, you know, maybe three. But they gave me these ornaments. And my instruction was that my character has just lost it. Michael has ruined Christmas.

Kelly has kissed my man. Ryan is the king of the party planning committee. Right? Yes. He said, I want you to take these ornaments and just throw them and shatter them. They were written in the script as glass ornaments. They were not glass ornaments. What?

Watch the scene. I throw them down. They bounced straight up in the air. What were they? They were like some kind of plastic composite whatever. Oh, no. So when you look, watch it, you guys, you see them bounce in the air. I assumed, well, that makes sense.

We did not have the budget to get special breakaway glass ornaments. And there's no way they would give you real glass. No. So these things bounced like a tennis ball. and so Charles is like cut and he goes okay two things one we need you to stand closer to the wall like if you can in the scene get as close to the wall as possible because that's where the guy is with the soap coming down yeah soap doesn't fall very far so we have another take and he's like why aren't you breaking the ornaments I'm like Charles they're bouncing what are you talking about

he goes can you throw them harder I was like yeah they're just going to bounce higher oh and I was like okay I got it I got it I have an idea so I know now we're really running out of time. So, and Michael Gallenberg had taken the most awesome photo that I have and it's the snow falling and me throwing the ornaments and Charles McDougal in the distance watching me. Oh, that's great. Michael Gallenberg, our set designer. Yeah, he took this photo. It was so cool. But anyway, here I am. We're running out of time. I got to stand. I got to get myself to the wall. I got to throw these ornaments and I need them to break. And I have to shriek, right? So I throw them with, I said, I'm going to throw them harder this time. I don't know. So I threw them as hard as I could.

They bounced up higher. I shrieked and I just started stomping on them and shattering them with my feet. Was that your intention going in when you're like, I have an idea. I can do it. I can do it. I was thinking if I can't get them to break, I have to start stopping on them. Yes. So that's what I just did. That was just an improv in the moment. I just started stomping on them. Folks, notice I'm wearing my sass shoes. Oh, that's the perfect shoe for this. I know. And so I shrieked. I get to the wall. I'm stomping things. I ripped the box apart. We got the scene. Oh, let me tell you, Tone Loak 89 is going to be very happy because they wrote in with a fan question. What was that? One of my favorite scenes is when Angela screams and smashes the glass ornaments. What was it like to film? All of that. Yes, exactly. But now if you go back and watch the scene,

you guys, watch like the first two that I throw. I think that's kind of from the first take. they bounce straight up. So when we go back up in the office, I have to point out that when everybody decides to go to poor Richards, Michael gets invited and the look on his face. It's better than any gift he could have been given. I know. And this is that moment where you're like, Michael has been just such a jerk, this whole episode, and then you see this sort of sad, wounded person that just wants people to like him.

Yes, how much he needs people to invite him to have drinks. Like, he needs it. are he needs his gift to be the most popular. Yeah. He needs that acceptance. Well, we have Michael's Talking Head at the end where he's talking about Christmas and Gifts. Here's a little fun tidbit. This Talking Head was originally shot to be at the beginning of the episode.

Oh. But when they were editing, they put it at the end because Greg wanted to do kind of a montage of scenes and of people leaving, of us out in the snow in the parking lot. And he was like, oh, wait, that Talking Head. head. That works perfectly because something that we couldn't do because of the documentary style, you couldn't do a montage with a song. No. You had montages were set to talking heads. And we have had a montage with song, but it's like the song playing in the car. Sure. Something like that. It has to be sound that is, what do they call that? Like a live sound. A live sound. Yeah, something like that. Active sound. Yeah. Before we get to the final scenes of the show, I just wanted to point out two

lines that fans have quoted as some of their favorite lines ever in this episode? Oh, yes. Say them. One is, happy birthday Jesus. Sorry, your party is so lame. Yes. And another fan favorite is Yankee swap is like Machiavelli meets Christmas. And I really do want you guys to check out the DVD deleted scenes from this episode. By the way, we're not getting paid to say that. We just really think they're good. We just really think they're good. And you guys, Oscar Nunez is so great with physical comedy. I did a sketch show with him before the office years ago in my 20s. We've known each other forever. He is a great physical comedian, but he didn't get to do very much of that on the office. But there is a scene in the deleted scenes where him and Creed move a desk and he gets

pinned in by the desk. He has to get out from being stuck. And it's really, really funny. I want to see that. And Phyllis reveals in a deleted scene for this episode how she met Bob. Oh. She says that they met because he works next door. Oh, well, there you go. They were right there together. And Kevin has a whole rap. He wraps a whole portion of a song. So really check out these deleted scenes if you can. They're fantastic. All right. Let's talk about the final scene inside the office. All right. It happens in Michael's office. He's getting ready to leave. He's going to go downstairs. Meredith just walks into his office. takes off her top and then Steve as Michael takes a picture and then walks out

I have a fan question Well first of all Kate I really wanted Kate to be able to call in for this one I traded text with her but she is starting a tour

with Dancing with the Stars Oh yeah and she's traveling today She's on a plane and she called me night before last and she was like Angie I'm so sorry I can't come in

but she was like I really do want to come in and talk about all things Meredith, so she will come eventually. Oh, that's good. I have a feeling you might know the answer to this fan question. Okay. Carrie Shob said, or maybe it's Carrie Shabe, said when characters flash each other,

are the actors really flashing each other in real life? No, no, no. No. I mean, sort of. Sort of. But no. I mean, it's still embarrassing. Even if I had to, like, be in a bathing suit, I'd feel awkward.

You know what I mean? Kate was wearing pasty. Kate had things. She was kind of covered. Yeah, she had things over her hoo-haz. Yeah. Steve is such a gentleman. He said, Kate, I'm just going to look at like your neck. Yeah, I stare at your clavicle. They had no crew inside. Yep. Her image wasn't on any monitors anywhere. That's right. And there was no chip in the digital camera. So the flash goes off. It looks like Michael's taking a picture, but there was actually never a picture taken. Never a photo. So they were very, very mindful of taking care of Kate in that.

moment. Kate would go on as Meredith to take off her clothes and quite a bit. Quite a bit. One of my favorite things is that Kate's father wrote her a handwritten letter. Oh my goodness. And all it said, this is her father who, you know, Kate is from Pennsylvania. And all it said was, Dear Kate, stop taking your clothes off. Love Dad. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. What did Kate do? How did she respond to that? She was like, oh, man. Now, is that her dad having a sense of humor or is that him being like, seriously, stop it? I think both. I think both. All right. Should we talk about the parking lot? We're almost done here. Yes. Let's talk about the parking lot because it is definitely one of the most magical moments that I remember in filming all nine years. And we all say that. Yeah, people often ask, like, what were your favorite scenes? And it's always hard to explain because sometimes your favorite scene, it doesn't seem like that exciting of a scene, but it's what happened behind the scenes that make it your favorite. And this parking lot scene is one of mine. Definitely. Definitely. Okay, so it's the end of the day. We have all of this real snow on the ground, and everyone is leaving, and everyone's in good spirits. And it's really nighttime. It was rare for us to ever work past. 6 p.m. So we always got excited. To walk out in the dark, I think, we all felt like we were up past

our bedtime. But also, you have to remember, this is Los Angeles. There's never snow on the ground. So this is magical in itself that we have a parking lot full of snow. And as we're walking to the cars, I don't know, like the shot you see, I'm actually in the front passenger seat of an SUV, but I'm only half in, like the doors open. But I remember one of the guys just picked up some snow and flung it at the other one. And then they all started picking up snow and having this impromptu snowball fight. Yeah. And everyone loved it and they wanted us to keep doing it.

But it was just sort of like us just all hanging out in the snow. Yeah. And we turned into a bunch of kids. We couldn't help it. Yeah. We were up past our bedtime with snow on the ground. Fresh snow on the ground. It was so fun.

And, you know, I have a picture of all of us. together in the parking lot with Charles McDougal, and it's great. I love it. I covet it. I love that. I want to see it. Yeah. Well, this is why we have to make our scrapbook thingy, Angela. We do. We should combine. Well, that's what we need to do. We need to compile and combine all of our stuff and then make it so that we can both have what we both have. Yeah. Right? Yeah. Before we lose it all. We need to do it. Okay. It's 2020. We need to do this. This is a goal for this year. I'm setting the goal for us this year. Well, you guys, she said it. Now I've got, like, Jenna's going to put me to task. This episode was really special. I really hope we did it justice because it means

so much to us. These episodes are almost harder for me than other ones because there's so much emotion attached to it. There's so much that happens in the scene. Not only, like, is it special to us personally, but it was like a big moment for our characters. Yeah. And just that moment at the end, that snowball fight, that is just a group of people who love each other, who are all getting to hang out. And we just happen to be on a TV show together. Yeah. It's just a really special moment. And I love that they let that be how it ended. And that's really how it felt when we left this show. that we were just a bunch of friends who happened to be on a TV show together

because we were friends. And we are friends. Yeah. And we're family. We are. So next week, we've got another big episode, Ann. Huge episode. I mean, listen, the rest of this season two

is just going to be one momentous episode after the other. Next up is Booze Cruise with our special guest, creator of the American Office, Greg Day. Daniels. Greg Daniels is going to be here. We are super excited. We cannot wait to talk to him. Thank you, Greg, in advance. And Booth Cruise is a huge, huge episode. We'll see you next week. Bye. Thank you for listening to Office Ladies. Office Ladies is produced by Earwolf, Jenna Fisher, and Angela Kinsey. Our producer is Cody Fisher. Our sound engineer is Sam Pfeiffer. And our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton. For ad-free versions of the show, and

our bonus episodes candy bag, go to stitcherpremium.com. For a free one-month trial of Stitcher Premium, use code, office.