The Office celebrated all kinds of holidays during its eight-year run, including Christmas, Secretary’s Day, St. Patrick Day, and Halloween. However, unlike many other TV shows of the time, The Office did not release an official Thanksgiving-themed episode.
But that’s not to say the annual U.S. holiday went unnoticed in the show, with the Thanksgiving holiday actually getting a mention in Season 7, Episode 9 of the comedy series.
Newsweek has everything you need to know about that unofficial Thanksgiving episode you may have forgotten about.
Season 7, Episode 9 of The Office, titled “WUPHF.com,” saw Michael (played by Steve Carell) set out on a mission to try and get his staff to invest in Ryan the Temp’s (B.J. Novak) disastrous start-up company, WUPHF.com.
While Thanksgiving is not the main theme of the episode, there is at least one reference made to the major U.S. holiday, which is enough for the episode to go down in The Office history as its unofficial Thanksgiving show.
On the fourth Thursday of November every year, those who celebrate Thanksgiving gather with their friends, family, and loved ones to celebrate the blessing of the harvest.
Although Thanksgiving may not have been celebrated by Dunder Mifflin employees during the show’s nine-season run, luckily Dwight (Rainn Wilson) was on hand in Season 7 with his fall-themed celebration: a hay bale festival.
Dwight held the unique celebration in the parking lot of Dunder Mifflin, which saw kids make their own broomsticks find their way out of a hay bale maze, and a lucky attendee had the chance to be crowned The Hay King.
At Dwight’s hay bale festival, Angela (Angela Kinsey) crossed paths with Senator Robert Lipton (Jack Coleman). Sparks fly between the pair as they make smalltalk, over the extortionate prices Dwight is charging at his hay bale festival.
It is only via Angela and the senator’s awkward attempts at flirting we learn Dwight’s hay bale festival was taking place at the same time as the Thanksgiving holiday.
Although The Office did not go as big as shows like Friends and New Girl on Thanksgiving, the mockumentary series did go pretty hard on Christmas.
The exclusive Party Planning Committee (PPC) was not going to let its annual Christmas Party slide and in total, audiences were treated to seven festive specials.
The first ever Christmas episode aired in 2005 in Season 2. Titled “Christmas Party”, the episode saw the staff at Dunder Mifflin participate in Secret Santa.
“Christmas Party” is also a favorite for Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fisher) fans as it is the episode where Jim gives Pam the most thoughtful gift of all, the blue teapot with all of their memories and inside jokes.
The final Christmas-themed episode of The Office was in Season 9, 2012.
Titled “Dwight Christmas”, Dwight takes control of the celebrations after Phyllis (Phyllis Smith), head of the PPC, deliberately ‘forgets’ to plan a Dunder Mifflin bash to spite Angela.
Branching out from the standard office party, Dwight decides to throw a Pennsylvania Dutch–themed Christmas.
Newsweek has the full list of The Office Thanksgiving and Christmas themed episodes below:
Thanksgiving
- Season 7, Episode 9: “WUPHF.com”
Christmas
- Season 2, Episode 10: “Christmas Party”
- Season 3, Episodes 10 & 11: “Benihana Christmas”
- Season 5, Episode 11: “Moroccan Christmas”
- Season 6, Episode 13: “Secret Santa”
- Season 7, Episodes 11 & 12: “Classy Christmas”
- Season 8, Episode 10: “Christmas Wishes”
- Season 9, Episode 9: “Dwight Christmas”
The Office is streaming on Peacock now.
NBC
