Bonus Christmas Episode with Brian Baumgartner

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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 Lovers podcast just for you.

Each week we will dive deeper into the world of the office with exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes details, details, and lots of VFF stories.

We're the Office Lady 6.0.

Hello!

Ho, ho, ho!

Oh, I'm so excited for today.

Everybody is dressed in their most festive outfits.

Jenna has on the cutest hoodie ever.

You guys, it looks homemade, Jenna.

It's like...

It is.

It's so cute.

It's got little mittens and a snowman.

Where'd you get it?

My mom gave this to me.

She got it at a craft fair in St.

Louis.

Oh, I love a craft fair.

And Sam has on the cutest Christmas sweatshirt.

Sam, describe it.

It is a light-up Simpsons hoodie.

It lights up.

And then, Cassie, you might win the prize of the day.

I have a gingerbread onesie on that literally got delivered this morning.

It's so cute.

Just in time.

Angela, you've got on your Santa hat and your red and white stripes like a candy cane.

I love it.

Mm-hmm.

And do you want to tell people what we're doing today?

Because we don't usually pop into your feed on a Friday.

We don't, but we're feeling festive, and today we have a very fun bonus episode for you.

Guess what the theme is?

Wait, I'm gonna give you a hint, everyone.

As if our outfits didn't clue you in.

What does this get you in the mood for, everyone?

Little

baby, pour rump a bum bum.

I am a poor boy too for rump a bum bum.

I have no gift to bring for rumpa bum bum

that's fit to give our king bar rumpa bum bum bum

yes i just wanted to see if you would like to come to jamaica with me there's this resort uh called sandals

well we won't make you listen to me singing off gay much longer but you guys guess what this means that's right get ready ready for a special holiday episode.

Thanks to the folks at Macy's.

Yes, thank you, Macy's.

You know, Angela, when we were preparing this episode, I went back and I watched that scene of you singing.

I didn't know you were going to play it today.

But my favorite thing about that is how at the end of that, the camera pushes in on Michael and he's inviting someone, we don't know yet who, to go to Sandals with him.

And the look on his face, when you know the person on the other line said yes.

And of course, we're going to find out it's Jam.

Yeah.

Oh.

His reaction, talk about that little kid getting the best gift ever.

Yes.

It's like, seriously?

He's like, well, it's all inclusive.

Well, everyone, we have a really fun episode for you today.

Brian Baumgartner stopped by to talk about Christmas on the office, plus a fun holiday project of his.

Then we have a festive office ladies gift exchange.

I did a deep dive on the year Mariah Carey's Christmas song was dethroned from the number one spot.

Ooh.

And Angela met a real life Santa's helper.

Jenna,

did you just do a summary?

Oh my god.

You did a summary.

You can't help it.

Yes, I think I did, but I will not do fast facts.

Okay, we'll see.

Not gonna do it.

Okay.

Before we get into today's episode, I am really curious, you guys.

I love holiday traditions.

I love hearing what other people's holiday traditions are.

And Jenna, Sam, Cassie, I thought it'd be really fun for us to share something we do with our friends or family every year to celebrate the holidays.

Sam, you want to go first?

Sure.

I go back to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and my brother and I go get a like fresh cut Christmas tree

for his family.

And there's two dogs at the Christmas tree lot that we always look forward to seeing that are there every year.

Oh my god, I love that.

I can just picture all of that.

All right, Cassie.

The reason why I got the gingerbread onesie is my friends every year, we do this thing called Rain Beer games, which is beer pong.

And we do it in the middle of the night and all dress up.

And this year my partner and I are going to be ginger gingerbread men.

So we're going to wear red wigs with our onesies.

Oh, so cute.

Well, one of my favorite holiday traditions is holiday baking and.

And we always make my great-grandmother's snowball cookies.

They're kind of like a, a Hungarian wedding cookie, but we always made them at the holidays.

She made them.

My grandma made them.

My my mom made them, now I make them.

And it was really sweet because this year my daughter did a little cookbook at her school and she put our recipe for the snowball cookies in their school cookbook.

How special.

But I can't wait to bake a big batch of those.

Oh, I love that.

Well, that's kind of similar to mine.

One of the things that Josh does is he gets up early before everyone else on Christmas morning and he goes downstairs and he makes coffee cake.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

And then when the kids wake up, we make them all wait at the top of the stairs.

And we have pictures from every year, Jenna, when they were little.

And now they're teenagers and they still want to do it.

They wait at the top of the stairs and they're like Christmas cozy pajamas until we yell, all right, come down.

And then they run down the stairs to see all the gifts under the tree because we always leave one from Santa still.

And the whole house smells like coffee cake.

And I just love it.

I love the smells of Christmas, of the Christmas baking and all of that.

I know exactly what you're talking about.

Yeah.

So cozy.

Okay.

Well, I just love that.

Thank you guys.

Well, we've shared before that the holidays were a very special time on the set of the office.

And our good friend Brian Baumgartner stopped by the Office Lady Studio to talk a little bit about his favorite office Christmas memories.

It was so good to see him.

Yes, and he's also going to talk about his new book that he co-wrote with Ben Silverman.

It's already a New York Times bestseller.

It's called T'Was the Night Before Christmas at Dunder Mifflin.

Yes, everyone.

It is that traditional night before Christmas story, but with all of the characters from the office.

All right.

Well, here is our chat with Brian.

Brian Bob Gartner, welcome to Office Ladies.

Hi, guys.

It's so good to see you.

What's up, fella?

Oh, you know, it's the most wonderful time

of the year.

Yep.

it's time.

And I'm so happy to be here in your new spot here in my old stomping ground in Hollywood, California, which is weird because neither of you live here.

But thank you for supporting

your old memories.

Yeah, I guess.

Yeah.

I lived in West Hollywood when I first moved to California for many years.

So did I.

In fact, we found out we were just a few blocks apart and we didn't even know.

Oh, I knew Angela's spot.

You didn't invite me over then.

Oh, this was before I knew you?

This was before I was on the office.

I lived at Genesee and Santa Monica.

And I lived on Stanley.

Wow.

It's very exciting.

Well, Brian, thank you for joining us today on our special bonus holiday episode.

This is my first time on Office Ladies in Person.

Yep, that's right.

You've been so wonderful and so supportive of our podcast.

We have texted you the most random questions.

Now, I don't know about, let's address that first off.

Our texting?

Well, I didn't,

i i meant to apologize before

let's just say there was a contentious text exchange that was happening one week ago when i was literally in in scranton scranton pennsylvania sitting at dinner and i did get an office lady's text you did it was about the accountants webisodes yes i wasn't going to reveal what it was about but let's just

we shared about it oh it was conflicting oh boy what i really did now you're not making it not really not really but and something was was said I got really fired up and that was what I was gonna say to you when I saw you today was like that was that was kind of old school Brian like fired up texting as fast as I could uh-huh.

Like, I have to go right now, but this is aggravating me.

My favorite thing when I can tell you're fired up is you do the one word.

You'll say, not true, correct, false.

You kind of become Dwight.

There was, yeah.

We won't reveal what it was that had us all fired up.

That's for Office Ladies Burn It to the Ground.

Okay.

That's our next podcast in another like five years.

In five years, burn it to the ground.

That's right.

Well, maybe you'll have me back on then.

Oh, can't we?

We'll burn it to the ground.

Together.

All right, perfect.

I can't wait for you to be like, untrue.

But for today's episode, Brian, we want to reminisce about the office holiday episodes.

They were so great.

What was your favorite?

Do you have a favorite onset memory, a favorite offset memory?

Well, so I don't think that I have rhapsodized with you guys, probably because it was on Zoom and not in person.

That's such a word.

That's a falsy word.

For me,

when people ask, because people ask all the time, like, what's your favorite episode?

Or, you know, whatever.

Yeah.

I think it's for me, it's about what was going on outside of it now as much as what the actual episode was, right?

So, for example, for me, I don't know if it's the same.

We haven't discussed this.

This is not pre-planned.

Like, for me, if people say, like, what's your favorite episode?

At this point, I pretty much say stress relief.

And the reason why is one, great episode times two, double partner.

But for me, I was,

am still a big sports fan.

And that episode, as I'm sure you guys know, aired after the Super Bowl that year.

And that was the the first, I was invited by NBC to go to the Super Bowl.

And that was the first time I had ever been at a Super Bowl.

And so I'm in the Super Bowl, which, you know, is the Super Bowl.

It's the Super Bowl.

And on the like,

jumbotron.

Jumbotron.

I think that's an old-timey word.

I don't think they call it that anymore.

You know what I mean?

I'm going to rhapsodize about it a little bit, and then I'll get back to you.

That just means thinking.

There was like the office after the Super Bowl.

And it was like, that's our show.

Like, that was it.

So, that for me has

a particular,

well, it's, it's obviously fond memories of that.

I think for the Christmas episode, it's the same, but different.

Like, it's about what was happening outside.

And as I'm sure you guys have or will talk about, like, that very first Christmas episode, it didn't launch the show.

It wasn't the first episode of the show, but that episode really launched the success of the show.

Like, that episode became our largest audience since the premiere.

And

from there, you know, then Steve wins the Golden Globe like three or four weeks later.

Everything starts happening.

We get into the

point, we didn't even have a full order for the season.

And they started after that.

It became clear we were going to be around for a while.

So, and

the other thing I always, and this is a long time ago, I talked about like that episode being special because everybody did something.

Like there was everyone was sort of featured in some way.

And then I said, You could make an argument except Meredith.

However, she ends up having maybe one of the greatest moments on the show ever when she takes her top off and Michael snaps the picture over at the very end of the episode.

So that, like, suddenly, like at the end, she sort of explodes as well.

So that made it special.

They were also hard.

That's what she said.

They were hard to produce.

You get one.

Yeah.

I get one.

They were hard to produce the Christmas episodes because big party group scenes, everybody involved.

Everyone playing.

Yeah.

I feel like those were some of the most joyous episodes because we really would be in these

like group party situations for most of the episode.

And then, of course, we would be doing bits.

And I'm sure we were very hard to wrangle.

We were probably like trying trying to make a TV show with a room full of six year olds or something

doing all our bits.

But I just remember, Brian, I remember when

you sit on Steve's lap as Santa and I know everyone always brings it up to you, but it was like we, no one could get through it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, that in terms of like singular moments for me in the Christmas episodes, I mean, that one does.

And part of it is like, you know, when you look back at photos from your childhood, back before there was,

you know, we didn't have, everything wasn't videotaped every five seconds.

You look back at these photos or like video home, whatever, and that becomes like a part of your memory.

Now that the bloopers reel with me sitting on Steve's lap is just like everywhere.

So it like keeps, like it keeps that so fresh in my mind.

And the thing that I've said to people, and I think this microphone will work really well, that like it was funny.

And you guys, but like I had the like literal front row seat to him and the noise that he made when I sat down.

And he made it and he knew he had the mic, but it was right in my ear.

And as I would sit down, he did this.

And I could, it was so

difficult for me.

I couldn't eat.

And everyone else was laughing, but I was laughing too.

And the way, you know, his face was just so like pained and almost he manufactured sweat coming down the side of his face.

And I remember pretty early on,

I don't know, maybe after just one or two takes, and we probably did 30, I turned to him and I'm like,

are you okay?

Like, this is like, sure, are you okay?

And he was like, oh, God, yeah.

No, I'm totally fine.

I mean, you know him.

He was just like, oh, no, I'm totally fine.

Like, I'm just literally putting this on.

Well, if you watch that episode, people are breaking in the background.

Oh, 100%.

Mindy just walks out.

Yeah.

She just turns and leaves.

Ed dives behind

into the hallway.

You never ever got a take where people held it together the whole time long enough to actually put the show together.

They just gave up.

Never like forgetting that this is what it is.

Yeah.

You know, the only other time that I think that happened for me, this is not Christmas related, but I'll tell it.

The only other time that I remember it happening for me was with amy ryan that was for me that was my personal like that one was difficult the sitting on the um

at the bending machine buttons and the coins and the coins her earnest eyes looking into mine so i mean and she just amy just stared right at you and her saying this is a button i could not like that she was really earnestly trying to tell me that that one if you go back and look still like the last take i think and i think there was a conscious decision either by me or we were discussing it i was like guys i don't know how this is gonna go

and we knew that it was gonna edit into that like

i'm totally gonna bang holly thing and so i was like oh i can smile kevin can smile

because then immediately yeah because he sees what's coming but that one was oh no that was that was really difficult and remember the episode dwight's christmas when my character is like up on the credenza and I can't get down and it's in a montage and Kevin goes to help get me down and you basically put me like when someone carries a football under their armpit.

That's right.

Like in this weird football hold.

And I was like, I almost went completely upside down.

And they just kept it in.

And I saw that the other day and I started cracking up because I knew it was just you messing with me.

Yeah.

Which we would do all the time.

That happens.

Well, Brian, I want to talk about something else with you.

You know, there's a reason why you've been using all these really big words today.

It's because you are an author.

Yes.

And you right now have a book called The Night Before Christmas at Dunder Mifflin.

Yes.

I know.

Some people say, and you can't see it if you're listening to us, that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

I think the cover looks really good.

It's so good.

I want to be judged by the cover.

It looks so great.

The illustrations are so cool, Brian.

Will you talk to us a little bit about how how this all came together?

Well, part of the idea came from what fans have talked to me, and I'm sure the two of you about, which is one of their family traditions at the holidays has been to binge watch the office Christmas episodes.

Yes, that's like part of their holiday tradition.

That's become like a thing.

Like how we used to watch Rudolph.

Yeah, and Frosty and the Grinch.

Sure.

Yes.

That people are watching the Christmas episodes.

So that's sort of where it started.

The idea for adapting the night before Christmas poem.

You know, the night before Christmas.

The poem.

The poem.

The OG.

Yep.

Not at Dunder Mifflin.

That was,

truthfully, the very first text I ever memorized.

That was my first

memorized performance in front of my family.

How old were you?

We had a giant,

and no one can see my hands.

Probably three feet tall, like a big illustrated version of the night before Christmas.

Yeah.

And it started by me reading it when I learned to read.

What is that?

Four or five sisters.

You brought up a big giant.

I would be holding the book and would read the thing.

And that was a tradition.

That was one of our traditions.

How cute.

And then one year I memorized it and then I recited it for everybody as my sister turned the pages and I didn't look at it.

So that, um, that is so sweet.

So that, that has a special connection to me.

But in that book, one of the most important things is the illustrations.

And so when we started to have this idea and talk about adapting the night before Christmas and setting it here in the office, I had worked on this show, Trash Truck, that Glenn Keene had executive produced.

Now, Glenn Keene is like literally a god in the animated world.

So I called him, I called him about five times to say, like, you have to, he's very busy.

I was like, you have to do this because I knew he was a big fan of the office.

So I was like, look, you have to do this.

Mael Gormelin, he is the one who actually did the drawings, but I was on calls with Glenn, his whole team, and Mael every week.

That was my favorite part of this for, I don't know, two, three months.

We would have like a two-hour call and talk about every image and what it looked like and how the characters were developed.

And that was really fun to do.

When you open up the book, just the very first page, you know, it says,'Twas the night before Christmas and all through Dunder Mifflin, not an accountant was stirring.

Not a mouse was a clicking.

It's so cool because it just brings you right into the world of the office.

Pam is sleeping at her desk.

Jim's sleeping.

Everybody's sleeping kind of at their desks.

It looks like the Christmas party has happened and we've all sort of fallen asleep after the party.

I'm so glad that you mentioned that because when the first drawing started coming in, the thing that I kept catching inside of me, I was like, where are we?

Where exactly are we?

Are we backed by the accountants?

Like, where?

And so that was my first major and only sort of note about that was the architecture of the space is so important.

Like, I want to know where we are within this layout of the sh that everybody knows so well.

Most of the people who read this will understand it.

So, he took that and like flew with it, including exactly what you just brought up.

Like, we're coming into the book.

And so, the angle, the perspective is us entering Dunder Mifflin from that classic, like we see the Jim and Dwight clump and Michael's office and the painting on the wall.

And, you know, there's so many things too, like the details of that plant that was next to the lamp that we all ended up trying to plant in the finale.

And Pam's desk, there's the little plant by her desk.

Just all these things are so specific to the show.

And it's just, it's really fun.

Brian, it's kind of like I got the Lego, the office Lego one year.

And when you put it together and you see all the details,

I just think that your book is illustrated in that same fun way where you see all these little nods.

Like Andy's wearing a hat that says, I went to Cornell.

Yes, well, that's his gift.

I know.

Santa.

From Santa.

I have to say, Santa is a much better gift giver than Michael Scott.

Michael Scott is.

Yes.

In this book, he really knows his employees well.

It's very sweet.

I mean, he gives Angela pills to heal her cat's infection.

Yeah, well, obviously.

It's really fun.

My cats are always ill.

Now, we should let our listeners know that this is a little PG-13.

It's a little bit for your older kids.

This is not for your five-year-old.

Because,

like the show,

right, the book has nods to the show.

So, if the content of the show feels appropriate to watch with your children, then the book is appropriate.

Yeah, I would say that it would be like a middle-of-the-road episode of the office.

So, it's not like sexual harassment.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Scott's Todd or dinner party.

But there's a, that's what she said.

Yes, there are some jokes.

It's funny because I just have been doing signings.

Oh, I mean, you like little ones.

Like,

make this out to Gabe for his first birthday party.

And I sort of did a look like, hmm.

Well, Gabe can read this book.

Gabe doesn't know any better.

He's one.

It's going to go right over Gabe's head.

That's true.

But yes, it is intended to be an office fan keepsake.

Yes.

Not specifically.

It's not a children's four-year-olds.

That's right.

Exactly.

Yes.

I did want to say that I love the button at the end.

For a true office fan, there is someone that Michael Scott Santa did not include.

Yes.

I won't ruin it.

Well, I think you can guess.

I will tell you, the rhyming and like having a legit rhyme is often not as easy as you think that it might be.

And so I had constructed how I wanted it to end.

And there were words, there was a specific word that was really difficult to rhyme with.

And then, well, what was it?

You'll have to read it.

You'll have to read it.

You'll have to read it.

Okay.

But that is

a, it was, and I think it, it turned out better, particularly along with the illustration.

But yes, it came out of an inability to rhyme a certain word.

Well, I just think this is so fun.

I think the office fans are going to love it.

What a great part of a holiday tradition.

Now they can watch their favorite office holiday episode.

They can read

The Night Before Christmas at Dunder Mifflin.

Yes.

Again, it's not a, because some people have asked, like, oh, which episode is it?

Like, it's not a specific episode.

There are nods to certainly iconic moments from characters throughout the show or specific character traits from characters throughout the show, as well as all of the Office Christmas episodes.

Which makes it perfect.

Yes.

It's for fans.

It's for fans.

Brian, thank you so much for coming by and talking with us.

Thank you so much.

Happy holidays to all of you out there and to all a good night.

No, I don't know.

You have such a beautiful, rich voice, though.

I would listen to you read The Night Before Christmas at Dundrom.

By the way, is there an audio version?

Oh, yes, there is.

Yes, there is.

If you don't want to read to your children who are old enough for this book, well, you can have me do it for you.

Yay.

I love it.

Thanks, Brian.

All right.

Thanks, guys.

Thanks for having me.

Love you, B.

It was so fun having Brian in the studio with us.

You know, Jenna, I was sitting there thinking, gosh, it's been a while since the three of us have all been in one room together.

Yes.

In person.

It's true.

I mean, I talk to Brian all the time.

I see Brian quite often, actually.

And so do you.

But the three of us, it's all been a while.

Yeah.

And we'll be sure to put a link in our stories so you can get all the details about his new book.

It is so cute.

And it would make a good gift if you have an office lover in your family.

And Brian worked so hard on it.

He really did.

All right, everyone.

Falls here.

The kids are back in school.

Vacations are over.

It's officially the start of cozy season, which means one of my favorite times to buy socks.

You heard me.

And my favorite socks are bombas.

I love them so much.

First of all, I love their ankle socks.

You know, I play a lot of tennis and those are great socks for tennis.

But when it gets a little cooler out, I love their merino wool socks.

Okay, my favorite one is the merino wool blend quarter socks.

I like the quarter socks, you know.

Now my daughter likes the calf socks.

She likes them a little bit longer.

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On the website, they have a mix and match four different styles and you save 10% off.

So love that.

You guys, go get your Bombas socks.

You're going to love them.

Maybe some slippers.

You're going to be so ready for the cozy fall.

Trust me on this one.

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Head over to bombas.com slash office ladies and use code Office Ladies for 20% off your first order.

That's B-O-M-B-A-S.com slash office ladies.

Code Office Ladies at checkout.

Well, I think that was a pretty successful gift exchange.

And, you know, Dundromifflin had some pretty epic gift exchanges.

Well, they sure did.

Of course, the most famous is probably the Yankee swap from Christmas Party season two.

But Ange, my favorite memory from that episode is an off-camera memory, which we shared in our book, which is that we all wanted to see if Angela could fit inside of a large Christmas bag.

Yeah, there was one on set.

A big gift bag.

Yeah.

And you fit.

I did.

I crawled in it.

And then you guys all took a picture of me and we'll put that in our stories.

Yes, we put it in our book, but you need to put that in stories.

But in terms of an episode gift exchange, my favorite is actually from season eight, Christmas Wishes.

It's the montage where Dwight is doing his air guitar and it flashes to everybody exchanging gifts.

Yeah, that's great.

I really like that one.

Yeah.

Well, you know, the office has so many great Christmas episodes, and I loved our dueling Santas in season six in the secret Santa episode.

Oh, is that the one where it's Phyllis versus Michael, right?

Yes.

So Phyllis versus Michael, but then also Bob Vance shows up as Santa.

That's right.

We end up having three Santas, but Phyllis has such a great talking head about being Santa.

I love it so much, and I feel like we need to hear it.

I have been wanting to be Santa for years.

I believe I have the right temperament and the figure to do the job well.

I slipped a note to Jim 11 weeks ago, and he said I could do it.

It's been a long journey

but

I'm Santa Claus.

Aw, I love Santa Phyllis.

I know.

Santa Phyllis is so sweet.

Well you know Jenna all this talk about Santa's on the set of the office makes me think of a story I want to share about meeting someone who became a Santa's helper.

And moms and dads out there, if you're listening, you might want to listen to this part first before you share it with your family and any little ears.

Yes, good point.

You might be driving to your holiday stuff right now, and that's a good, good tip, Ange.

Yeah, it's a great story and I'm excited to share it.

This is the best story.

When you were making your Hallmark Christmas movie in Vancouver, you left me a message.

That I was like, you have to tell this on the podcast sometimes.

So I feel like this is the perfect time.

I agree.

So yeah, like Jenna said, I was working on my Hallmark Christmas movie.

And, you know, to get to the set, the location was about an hour from where I was staying.

So every day they would send a transportation driver that worked on the movie to drive me to the set.

And one of the guys that drove me was named Dan Cresswell.

And when you have an hour drive, you get to know someone.

You start chatting.

And on one of our drives, I asked him, oh, are you going to go work on another movie?

Because a lot of the crew was saying they already had another job, another Christmas movie lined up.

And he said, no, I'm about to take my three-month month yearly break.

And I thought, three months off?

What?

I was so curious.

I said, well, what do you do during these three months?

And he said, well, I'm a professional Santa.

And from October to December, I start work as Santa.

And then I know you, Ange.

You were like, I have so many questions.

Tell me more.

I did.

I was like, I have so many questions.

And we have an hour car ride.

So we're going to get into it.

First of all, lady, I had to ask him, how did this start?

How do you just kind of wake up one day and say, I'm going to be a Santa?

Well, does he look like Santa?

Does he grow out a beard and everything?

He does not look like a Santa at all.

And he will be very quick to tell you, by the way, that all the Santas you see, they are Santa's helpers.

They're not the real Santa.

They're all Santa's helpers for everyone listening out there.

That's right.

So all the kids listening out there, Dan wanted you to know that he's a Santa's helper.

Because it's a busy season and Santa needs all the help he can get.

That's right.

So anyways, I'm like, but Dan, seriously, when did you start doing this?

He said, well, it all started about seven years ago.

I was earning extra money delivering pizzas.

And it was November and my son, Zachary, was 11 years old at the time.

And he said, Dad, you should dress up as Santa when you deliver pizza.

I think that would be really fun.

And maybe you'd get better tips.

That's a smart kid.

That's so cute.

And Dan kind of laughed and then he thought about it and then he was at Walmart and there was a Santa suit for $50 so he decided to give it a go.

He said his very first pizza delivery dressed to Santa.

A dad opened the door and his little girls were standing there with him and they lost their minds.

They were so excited that Santa had come and brought them pizza.

And the dad said, would it be okay if I take a picture of you with my daughters for, you know, Christmas?

Dan said, sure.

And he said, the whole family was so thrilled.

And after that, he did get a nice little tip.

And he thought, hmm, maybe there's something to this.

He said that even as he would drive around town delivering pizzas in a Santa suit, people would honk and wave.

They'd want to take their picture like through the car window.

And he loved it.

And he told his wife, maybe I could do this as an actual business.

He didn't know anything about it or how to go about it.

lady.

He Googled.

He was

a Santa who googled?

Yes.

He said he found a Santa school in Vancouver.

It was a four-day course, Friday through Monday.

You get to learn how to become a professional Santa and marketing, etc.

And after that, he got a job as a Santa for Cabela's, which is very similar to like our Bass Pro shop.

Okay.

And he worked there for two years.

He kind of did some highlighting at the mall, but he really wanted to start his own Santa business.

This was his dream.

And his boss at the Cabela place got him a much better Santa suit.

And he was like, ooh, I'm going to need all the Santa gear if I'm going to make this my own business.

And I might need one or two more suits.

So he asked her, where do you get your Santa suits?

And she said, uh-uh, I'm not telling you.

Why wouldn't she give up the details about where to get a good Santa suit?

I guess she's the go-to for good Santa suits in Vancouver and she didn't want to give up her source.

Wow.

I know.

So he really had to mom detective it.

He joined a bunch of online communities of working Santas.

He found a site called hiresanta.com.

I guess it was featured on the TV show Shark Tank.

And you want to know the best part?

He finally found where to get a good Santa suit.

Where?

Adele Hollywood costumes here in Los Angeles.

Oh.

Mm-hmm.

He said he has two suits, the Coca-Cola Santa suit and the traditional Santa suit.

They run about $1,400 each.

Whoa!

Yeah, but they're really nice, he said, and they last a long time.

But that wasn't it.

Now he needed a good beard.

He does not have a beard.

He has short brown hair.

He needed a beard.

He needed the full look.

The first beard he bought was in California.

It was made from real hair and cost $1,500.

Wow.

Yeah.

But it didn't hold up as well as he liked when kids would tug on it because he said they tug on your beard.

Okay.

So then, through this community of Santa's, he found a lady that makes handmade beards in China using yak hair.

Wow.

Uh-huh.

He said it's the best Santa beard out there.

They average around $900 to $1,000 Canadian.

This is a real investment.

It really is.

I really like his integrity here, though.

He wants to look like a really good Santa.

If he's going to start his own business, he wants to be the real deal, is what he told me.

I have to imagine that these are Santa standards and that the real Santa wants his helpers to be as authentic as possible.

And he showed me pictures of his suits.

They're beautiful.

They're like works of art.

He also needed special Santa glasses and he got those from Spangle the Clown.

It's a website.

Guess what?

He's a clown and a Santa.

Oh.

He even found a website where you can get accessories.

Like he has a North Pole driver's license that he can show kids.

It's so cute, lady.

He texted me his picture.

It's so adorable.

But now he had everything he needed to start his own business, but he didn't know how to put on the beard.

How do you put on this beard?

How do you get it to stay?

How do you do the makeup?

And here he is driving on these movie sets.

So he went into the hair and makeup trailer on one of the movie sets.

I would hope so.

They taught him how to do the whole look.

He says it takes him about 45 minutes.

He puts on the beard with the spearmint gum.

And it really adheres that way.

If kids tug at it, it's like his own hair.

It's not coming off.

And the hair and makeup department on the movie, they thought it was so fun.

They gave him a nickname because his name is Dan, but he's a Santa.

So everyone on the set calls him Danta.

And now he has his own business.

He is his own Santa.

He gets bookings starting as early as July.

He said that October is photo time.

He does photo shoots with people.

November, December is the big corporate gigs and home visits.

And one of his biggest goals as Santa was to be in one of these holiday movies that he works on as a transportation driver.

And it finally happened.

He's been trying for four years.

And this year he's in a Hallmark Christmas movie as a Santa.

As a Santa!

Yeah.

Danta is going to be in a movie.

Yes.

It's called Leah's Perfect Gift.

It's on Hallmark.

And he told me he only has one big dream left as Santa.

What is it?

He wants to someday go to the world's oldest Santa school.

Where's that?

In Midland, Michigan.

It was established in 1937.

It's called Charles W.

Howard Santa Claus School.

On their website, it has this quote, he errs who thinks Santa enters through the chimney.

Santa enters through the heart.

Oh,

I know.

And lastly, I said, Dan, why do you like being a Santa's helper?

And he said he loves making people happy.

He said the way the kids' eyes just light up when they see Santa.

He said, you see hope, you see wonder.

The parents are so happy.

He said every day is something different, but it's always joyful.

And Dan's son is now 21 years old.

He said he's so proud of his dad, and it's all because he told him to dress up as Santa to deliver pizzas.

I mean, now I'm crying.

That was so beautiful.

I know.

And you know what else is beautiful about it, Angela, is that This is just something I love about you and your curiosity about people and the things that interest people.

It's true.

If you sit on a flight with Angela or if she's going to drive you for an hour, she's going to get it out of you.

She is.

She is going to, she wants to know what makes you tick.

But it's such a beautiful thing.

And I just love that you shared his story with everybody.

Well, thank you, lady.

I just really enjoyed getting to know him.

It's a whole world I knew nothing about.

I didn't know there was Santa School.

I know.

There's a whole program.

Yeah.

And I'm going to share Dan's website and our Instagram.

If you're in the Vancouver area and you need a Santa, you'll have all his information.

Thank you, Dan.

Well, you know, Angela, I think that the real Santa is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade Santa.

It's certainly the first time we see the real Santa for the season, and I have a little story about that.

Oh, yeah?

Yes.

My family went to New York for Thanksgiving one year, and once we were there, we realized that we were staying on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade route.

How fun?

How old were your kids?

Little.

They were young.

And lady, I love the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

I love all the musical numbers that they do.

I get to see the Broadway numbers twice a year at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Tony's, and I live for it.

I love the Macy's Day Parade.

Well, we were super excited when we realized we were on the route.

It's It's really long.

It's like two and a half miles.

You know, it goes all the way from up by the Natural History Museum all the way down to Macy's Herald Square.

We were staying about halfway, maybe.

So the first couple days before the parade, you can actually go up by the museum and you can watch them blow up all the balloons.

Yes.

And it's just so fun.

So here's the thing that happened, though.

On the day of the parade, we were all set to like go down to the end of the street where we were staying and just we got a free view of everything going by.

It was amazing.

Crazy.

But

we overslept because we were on LA time.

So by the time we woke up and we ran to the end of the street, it was the last float going by.

I know.

Which is Santa on his play.

This is a roller coaster.

Yes.

So we were like, oh, well, at least we got to see the Santa.

And then we went back inside and we were having breakfast and coffee and we were watching the parade on TV.

And it was, it was really crazy because it was almost an hour before Santa got from where we were

all the way down to in front of Macy's.

But we were all excited because that meant that we saw Santa about an hour before.

everybody else saw Santa on TV.

But it was just, it was a really, it's one of our fun family memories.

I love that.

I, you know, it's so funny, Jenna, because I have such a great memory of the Macy's Day Parade when I was interning on Conan, and it couldn't be more different.

But I want to tell you.

So here I am.

I'm in my early 20s.

I'm interning on Conan O'Brien when they used to tape at 30 Rockefeller Center.

And it's the day before the Macy's Day parade.

And they close all these streets along the route, right?

And it's in the morning and I'm walking to work and the street is closed.

There's like no one on it.

And I see this man in a full suit, like a really nice suit with a nice coat.

And he is rollerblading with a briefcase through the street, just like zooming by.

And as he goes by me, I just said, oh, wow, that's so cool.

And he goes, my favorite day of the year.

I always skate to work on this day.

Oh, my gosh.

Isn't that funny?

Yes.

And it was such a like visual, you know, to see this one lone skater in a suit in the in like an abandoned part of Manhattan.

I'll never forget it.

Okay, so lady, we have covered office Christmas memories, Santa, gifts, but there's one more thing I want to talk about.

For me, another thing I love about the holidays is the music.

Oh, yeah.

This is the time of year when you walk through the mall and you hear all the holiday songs playing.

I love it.

And I wanted to ask the group, do you have a favorite holiday song?

Like one that you look forward to hearing?

I think Bing Crosby's White Christmas.

Oh yes.

Yes.

Well, interestingly enough, Sam, I didn't know you were going to say that, but

Did you know that according to the Guinness Book of World Records, White Christmas by Bing Crosby is not only the best-selling Christmas holiday single in the United States, but it was also the best-selling single of all time since the advent of recorded music, with an estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.

I believe it also hasn't not been on the charts since it came out.

Incredible.

All right, Cassie, do you have a favorite Christmas song?

Yes, I like Wham's Last Christmas.

Oh, that's such a good one.

That one charts the top often as well.

It's usually in the top five.

And I really did a deep dive on Christmas music.

I don't normally have these stats off the top of my head.

You know, it's so interesting because it's not so much just one song for me, but an album.

Okay.

So I love Elvis's Christmas album.

Oh, yes.

It's so good.

You know, his silent night, Holy Night, is really beautiful, but then he also has Santa Claus is back in town, and that's like a really fun one.

But I just love that album.

It's interesting you say that, Angela, because my favorite Christmas song is also a favorite album.

I went through this phase where I got really into vinyl records, and my mom gave me her old record collection.

One of the records in the collection was a Frank Sinatra Christmas album.

I do bring out our little turntable and put it down by the Christmas tree.

This is the first album that I play every season when we're decorating the tree.

And the first song on the album is Frank Sinatra's Jingle Bells, and it's my favorite, and I'm gonna play it.

Yay!

I love those J-I-N-G-L-E bells,

oh, those holiday J-I-N-G-L-E bells,

oh, those have been J-I-N-G-L-E, B-E-double-L-S.

I love those J-I-N-G-L-E bells.

Oh,

jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way.

Oh, blue eyes.

I know.

You just sing me right into Christmas, mister.

Who are you right now?

I don't know.

I like it.

You guys, you know, since we're talking holiday music, I have to give a shout-out to our dear friend Kate Flannery because she has a great Christmas album with Jane Lynch called A Swingin' Little Christmas.

Oh, yes.

And I also have that.

It's so fun.

Her show, she does a show this time of year.

It's a super fun holiday show.

And I just always love to give her a shout out.

Well, we featured a lot of holiday music in our office Christmas episodes.

Angela, you played us, Little Drummer Boy, at the top of the episode.

We talked about when Dwight does his air guitar to Christmas Eve Sarajevo 1224.

That's the heavy metal medley of Christmas songs performed by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

But in general, Dunder Mifflin Christmas parties just love to bust out the karaoke and the microphones, and we did not limit ourselves to holiday songs.

For example, in Benny Hanna Christmas, when we had the dueling Christmas parties, we have Daryl on the keyboard and Kevin singing, and I thought we should listen.

And I'm here

to remind you of the mess you left when you went away.

It's not fair to deny me of the cross I bear that you give to me.

You, you, you, you, you, you, you ought to know.

Yes, I love it.

I remember it like I was there when Brian is coming.

I was like, yo, yo, you.

And of course, in Secret Santa, there's the time when Dwight and Andy sing Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams.

Oh, I re-watched that one.

We talked about that with Billie Joe Armstrong when we broke down that episode.

Yeah, he was impressed with Ed.

Yes, he was.

Well, the holidays just are not the same without the music.

And last year, I heard a story about holiday music that I have been dying to share on the podcast.

I have been waiting for us to do some sort of holiday-themed episode.

And here I go.

Now, I mentioned before that White Christmas by Bean Crosby was the best-selling holiday single in the United States.

But starting in 1991, we started tracking digital downloads as well as copies sold.

And as of November 25th, 2016, the holiday single with the most digital downloads is Mariah Carey's 1994 track, All I Want for Christmas is You.

Let's listen.

And I don't care about the pleasure.

I don't need the Christmas tree.

tree.

I don't need to end my stopping.

We're up on the fireplace.

Santa Claus will make me happy.

May my wish come true.

All I want for Christmas is you.

I love that song.

It is a great song.

It's a great song.

It always makes me think of the end of that movie love.

Actually, I love that song.

Well, it's also the most popular holiday ringtone.

Oh.

Okay, so for a very long time, Mariah Carey has had the number one spot on the Billboard Top 100 at the holidays.

Like she has been the reigning queen.

And the number two spot, year after year, would go to Brenda Lee for Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree.

Okay.

You know that song?

Yeah, of course.

Well, all of that changed last year.

Last year?

Last year was the 65th anniversary of Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree, and Brenda Lee decided she wanted number one.

What'd she do?

She went on talk shows.

She shot a brand new music video for the song.

She got her own TikTok account and started this whole like campaign to make Rockin' Around the Christmas tree the number one song.

Finally.

Like, is there a TikTok dance and the whole thing?

All right.

A big trend.

Yes.

To give you a little context, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree was originally recorded in 1958 when Brenda Lee was only 13 years old.

Oh, wow.

She's been like at the top of the charts for so long.

But never number one.

Never.

Well, guess what?

Last year, she did it.

No way.

Worked.

She dethroned Mariah Carey.

Her song hit number one on the billboard's top 100.

It is the oldest song to hit number one.

Brenda Lee became the oldest living person to score a number one song.

And Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree is only the third holiday song to hit number one on the chart.

What was the other one?

The third song is the Chipmunk song by the Chipmunks.

These other two songs are such great songs.

Could you imagine being Brenda Lee and being like, that song made it to number one before me?

Anyway, Brenda Lee, you did it.

I am so proud of you.

I found an audio clip of her talking about what it's been like to have this Christmas song just enduring over the years and I wanted us to play it.

Do you and your family listen to your song specifically during the holidays?

Like surely it has to come on when you're out and about, when you're at the stores, but like do you you guys listen to it no no I mean if the kids put it on of course but we don't make an effort to put me on they hear enough of me every day

but no I'm grateful that you know I don't think I'll ever get used to during the the Christmas season walking into a big department store or something and hearing my song play.

That's always going to be surreal to me.

Aw, how old was she when she finally was the number one Christmas song?

78.

Wow.

And she recorded that when she was 13.

13 years old.

Should we hear it?

Let's hear it.

I see it.

A little clip of it.

Yes.

Rocking around the Christmas tree at the Christmas party hop.

Whistle no home where you can see.

Every couple trust to stop.

Rocking around the Christmas tree, letting the Christmas period bring.

Later we'll have some fucking fun and we'll do some caroling.

So good, right?

13.

13.

Wow.

Yeah.

That's a great story.

I loved that.

Well, Mariah Carey sent Brenda Lee flowers with a card when she was dethroned and it said this, Dearest Miss Brenda, congratulations on your historic number one.

Have a Merry Christmas.

Love Mariah.

Classy.

Classy.

Yes.

Well, that was our holiday bonus episode.

Thanks to the nice folks at Macy's.

We'll be sharing lots of fun stuff in our Insta stories from today's episode, so be sure and check them out.

And a big thank you to Brian Baumgartner for stopping by the studio.

We will share where you can get his book, The Night Before Dunder Mifflin, and he's he's going to be joining us again for our episode, All About Kevin Malone.

Please send in your questions.

And next week we have another great episode.

We are breaking down a fan favorite, which is the Superfan Hot Girl episode.

Yeah, you guys suggested that we break down one of the Superfan episodes.

So we re-watched Hot Girl.

There were so many great new scenes and we found so much stuff.

So join us next week for the Hot Girl Superfan episode.

We hope you have a great one.

See you then.

Thank you for listening to Office Ladies.

Office Ladies is a presentation of Odyssey and is produced by Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey.

Our executive producer is Cassie Jerkins.

Our audio engineer is Sam Kiefer and our associate producer is Ainsley Bubbico.

Odyssey's executive producers are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Leah Rhys-Dennis.

Office Ladies is mixed and mastered by by Chris Basil.

Our theme song is Rubber Tree by Creed Bratton.

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