Stockings full of coal

By Jim’s first Christmas in the office, he and Dwight hadn’t yet established themselves as enemies. In fact, they got along fine. Every once in a while, Dwight would do something incredibly strange, but Jim would just shake his head in bewilderment and get on with his day. It wasn’t like Dwight was particularly antagonizing him. And Dwight seemed to view Jim as a potential friend and protégé.

So when Jim opened his first gift from a Dunder Mifflin Secret Santa and found a tie that was an exact match of the tie Dwight was wearing that day, he looked up and found Dwight grinning at him.

“It was from me! Look,” he said excitedly, and lifted his own tie off his chest as if it would be more obvious if it were a few inches closer. He then proceeded to launch into a speech about how if they were coordinated, they could walk into meetings and impress the client before they even said a word, and be an unstoppable, matching team of salesmen, nay, sales warriors.

It was then that Jim realized he had to do something to nip this potential budding friendship in the bud. His head started buzzing with ideas for things that would really, really annoy Dwight…

Stockings full of goodies

After his first Secret Santa debacle, when he was packing up for the day and wondering what exactly to do with that God-forsaken tie, he felt a hand tap him on the shoulder. He turned and found Phyllis smiling at him and holding out a gift bag.

“What…” Jim was confused. “You weren’t my Secret Santa.”

“No, but ‘tis the season for giving and all, and I thought it was something you needed,” Phyllis responded with a bashful grin and motioned for him to take the bag.

He pulled out a winter hat and looked at it for a moment and then back to Phyllis.

“I knitted it,” she explained.

"Wow! That must have taken a lot of work. It looks so great – very professional.” Truth be told, the assortment of colors wasn’t really his thing, but it did look like a lot of effort and detail was put into it and he was impressed that someone could have done that by hand.

“I just… I noticed that the one you wear every day is pretty old and has holes in it, and I didn’t want you to catch cold.”

He smiled – a real, big smile, the first genuine smile he’d worn all day. “That’s really thoughtful of you, Phyllis. Thank you so much.” He put it on and asked, “How does it look?”

Even though the colors weren’t really his thing, when she told him it made him look ‘really smart’ he knew he’d keep wearing it every day for a long time – maybe until it got holes in it.