"No, no, no!" Pam heard Michael screaming from his office. "Don't do this to me, don't make me tell those people out there Christmas is canceled- It is too canceled if there's no party! Ah! Pam, would you get in here?" She got up from her desk, shooting a look over at Jim who just rolled his eyes and smirked. Erin, who was sitting at reception, also noticed Michael call Pam in, disheartened because it was clear that Michael liked and trusted Pam more than herself.

"What is it, Michael?" She asked innocently from the doorway.

"Close the door." Pam did what he asked and took a seat, painfully realizing it was going to be one of those conversations.

"Pam. Do you know what corporate just told me?" Michael paused, waiting for Pam to guess.

Playing along, Pam asked, "I don't know Michael, why don't you tell me."

"They said no Christmas party this year."

"Did they give a reason?" Pam had heard the phone call and was now realizing this was a serious issue. Pam was excited about Christmas actually. She was excited to celebrate her first Christmas as a married woman and her last Christmas without a child.

"Well," Michael began and he soon made it clear that all of the money allotted for parties had been spent on trivial holidays or random days out of the year. So, instead of being able to get an actual Christmas tree, they can instead say they celebrated them on national tree day. Pam's face fell. If she had been in the office, she might have been able to reason with Michael and this whole situation wouldn't be a problem, but alas. She and Jim were on their honeymoon and Michael thought it'd raise everybody's spirits to order cakes on random days while they waited for their return.

"I mean, that doesn't mean we still can't have a party, right? We can collect donations maybe and then decorate with what we have saved." Michael's face lit up (quite similar to a Christmas tree actually) at the idea.

"Pam! You're a genius, can you go around and do that?" Pam smiled at the compliment but remembered with all that time spent off, she had to get back to work. Having only a handful of sales to her name, her commission and paycheck were not looking good, and with a child on the way and even more time spent off on maternity leave, she couldn't afford to spend the next few days not working.

"Actually Michael, why don't you call Erin in and have her handle that?" Michael made a face.

"Oh come on Michael," Pam said, lowering her voice. "She's sweet and seems like she'd be perfect for taking over, you should just give her a chance."Michael starred her down, willing her to change her mind but Pam didn't budge, she couldn't afford to.

"Fine, go get her, but Pam, if she screws this up, Christmas will be re-canceled." Pam rolled her eyes and went to go get Erin.

Seconds later, Erin hoped from reception and bounded towards Michael's office, excited to be included. "What do you need me to do?" Michael conveyed to Erin Pam's ideas for the party and Erin's mind began running through hundreds of ideas. Her mind ran through all the Christmas' she spent at the foster home, celebrating Christmas around a house plant with handmade origami gifts and festive cards made with half-dried out markers and crayons.

The following days were spent collecting donations and beginning to plan out the party. While this would usually be the party planning committee's job, Angela refused because she had no budget and didn't want her name attached to a party she believed would turn out awful.

Many people wanted to donate to the party cause but most hoped other office workers would be generous and therefore only $38 was collected. Well, that, and some loose change Erin found near her desk and an $8 dollar bill from Creed which Erin decided not to question. This did not deter Erin's enthusiasm though, and throughout the month of December, the office slowly began to transform into a festive workplace. Erin spent lots of time cutting out snowflakes, sometimes with Andy's help and stringing them with paper clips across front reception and from the ceiling. The great thing about working at a paper company was access to a lot of paper. She also set up Secret Santa. She even used post-it notes to create a Christmas tree on the door leading into Michael's office and wrote the names of the workers in red marker.

Oscar noticed about a week into her decorating, her trying to fold a paper Christmas tree from off a youtube video. Being a lover of origami himself, he thought a break might be nice and spent the day helping fold mini-trees to set up on people's desks. Even Angela had to admit the office looked good.

The day of the Christmas party arrived and Erin was proud of her work, although she was still disappointed that they could not afford a tree. She had never seen a Christmas Tree except for in movies and the little scented air fresheners she kept in her car. She also supposed she had seen them in the stores at Christmas time but those were blue or pink and plastic. After spending hours searching online and calling places, she gave up; no one would sell her a healthy-looking tree for a mere $38 dollars (or less because she did still need to buy food too). Erin had asked Michael if she could get an early start to add some finishing touches to the party and arrived at the office promptly at 6 am. When she went to unlock the door she found it was already slightly ajar and the lights were on inside. She also detected an odd smell. It reminded her of something but she didn't know what.

As she entered the office, she saw at the center a giant green pine tree with half a strand of lights already around it. Pine needles littered the carpeted floor and the smell she now realized was that of a real pine tree. She also realized her own air freshener smelled nothing like it. She set down her bag with her secret Santa present and food for the party and walked over to the tree just as Michael, with a red Santa hat, was coming around the corner with another strand of lights.

"Michael!" Erin exclaimed with an ear-to-ear smile on her face.

"Erin, you're here! Would you mind holding this while I adjust the strand above it?"

"Sure!" Erin ran over and grabbed the multi-colored bulbs. "I can't believe you got a tree!"

"Yeah, I figured you can't have Christmas without it." Michael shrugged at her comment, playing off the attention.

"Well, thanks! You know, I've always wanted a tree."

"Yeah, I overheard you talking to Andy about it and my nana sent me two Christmas cards this year, anyways the office looks great!"

"Michael, you're literally the best! You're like the reverse grinch!" Michael burst out laughing at that.

"Now you listen to me, young lady! Even if we're horribly mangled, there'll be no sad faces on Christmas!" Michael quoted in his best Jim Carrey Grinch voice. To say Erin was delighted would be an understatement. Erin ran back to her computer and began playing her Christmas music playlist which she had been listening to well before Halloween and the two of them finished stringing the tree with lights. They decorated the tree with ripped pieces of paper to simulate snow and they each found different things to hang from the branches. Erin grabbed her stapler and some more colorful post-its while Michael grabbed toys from his office, including his train whistle and Dundermifflin semi-truck, to also add to the decorations.

A few hours later, the rest of the office filed in to find Michael, with a white beard made of post-it's, and Erin dancing around, hollering along to Mariah Carey.