comes into the office as Santa and is outraged that Jim had already allowed Phyllis to be Santa at the office Christmas party this year. Everyone seems to enjoy having Phyllis as Santa, but Michael continues to try to steal her thunder, prompting Jim to tell him to cease and desist. Michael then rearranges his costume into a Jesus outfit and starts interrupting Phyllis while she's giving out the Secret Santa gifts. When Jim stops Michael again, Michael calls CFO David Wallace to complain. David asks not to be bothered as someone made an agreement to buy the company, and David and presumably everyone else will lose their jobs after the fact. Michael calls a conference meeting to try to keep up everyone's spirits but reveals that the company is going out of business, which puts everyone into shock. When Jim asks for confirmation, Michael says that David told him that the company is being sold. Jim notes that being sold could be different than going out of business, so Michael calls back David with everyone listening. David reveals that he meant that only he, CEO Alan Brand, and a few other executives at corporate will lose their jobs, but the branches will stay as they are the only successful aspect of the company. The office then cheers and goes back to the party, where everyone receives their Secret Santa gifts and Michael apologizes to Phyllis for trying to overshadow her. Oscar has a secret crush on Matt, one of the new warehouse workers. Pam tries to play matchmaker and introduces Matt to Oscar. After conversing a while, Matt leaves and Oscar asks Pam to let him pursue Matt by himself. Meanwhile, Dwight explains that his present has been delivered to him in pieces over the course of several weeks. After his first attempt to assemble it, he believes it is a gun. However, after a hint from Michael, he rebuilds it and realizes it is in fact a nutcracker. He is pleased, exclaiming "Oh man! I can use this for so many nuts!" Additionally, Andy had asked to have Erin as his recipient for Secret Santa and decides to give her the Twelve Days of Christmas as his gift to her. However, the gifts, most of which are actual live birds, are causing her physical harm, prompting her to publicly ask her Secret Santa to discontinue. Andy asks Phyllis not to reveal him as Erin's Secret Santa, but Michael reveals that Andy had Erin for Secret Santa and she becomes upset with Andy. At the end of the episode, as the office leaves for the night, they are greeted by the "twelve drummers" in the parking lot. Andy joins them and wishes Erin a Merry Christmas, completing his Secret Santa gift to her. They start drumming and Erin is visibly pleased by the gesture.
Reception
This episode was watched by 8.51 million viewers, with a 4.2 rating and an 11 share in the 18–49 demographic. IGN's Dan Phillips gave the episode an 8.7/10 saying that "The episode had a lot of great lines; for example Jim eventually shows up with a great line of his own, telling Michael, "You can't yell out 'I need this, I need this!' as you pin down an employee on your lap" and also noting "there have been better, funnier Christmas episodes in the past, but not by all that much".
Producer's cut
Five days after the episode first aired on television, Hulu added the producer's cut of the episode to their website. This version includes 9 extra minutes, bringing the total length of the episode to 29:43.
