Over the course of seven seasons, New Girl has some pretty great holiday episodes. The characters bring their best (and worst) renditions of Christmas carols, plenty of parties, and of course, speculation as to whether or not Santa really exists. They even decide to do their own “Secret Santa” gift exchange in one season, keeping their gifts anonymous until the recipient gets to guess where it came from.
When the residents of apartment 4D and their significant others get together to exchange gifts, however, not all gifts are created equal. Some of the characters have really unique ideas for gifts, making the exchange memorable, while others clearly don’t know the person they’re giving a gift to well at all. That’s why not every character in New Girl would make for a great Secret Santa.
Yes: Cece
The audience doesn’t get to see a lot of the gifts that Cece gives other people, but the ones the audience does see are very well thought out.
When she gets Winston as her Secret Santa recipient, Cece writes him a check. That might seem impersonal, but she makes the check out to the phone company he owns that doesn’t actually do any business. It’s an inside joke, one that also shows she cares about the things he tells her. Considering how observant Cece is (like her being the first to realize that Jess and Nick are actually into each other), she’s someone who could find the perfect gift for the people she knows.
No: Coach
Coach disappears for two seasons following the pilot episode, but he remains as close to the residents of 4D as ever when he returns. Unfortunately, he doesn’t spend much time during the gift exchanges of the holiday episodes, so it’s a bit harder to gauge his gift-giving skills.
What the audience does know about Coach is that he is willfully unobservant. He tends to see what he wants to see in a situation so that he doesn’t have to face that he might be making his friends uncomfortable – like when he doesn’t understand why Jess has a sudden interest in basketball because she just wants to get to know him. Coach is more likely to gift someone memorabilia of his own favorite team, or a pair of tickets to a sporting event he hopes his friend will share with him, instead of something they actually want.
Yes: Aly
Much like Cece, Aly is more observant than people give her credit for. That’s likely a result of all of the extra training she’s done for her job in the police force, like spending weeks at a workshop at Quantico.
She’s also got some pretty quirky interests, as demonstrated by her storage unit full of prizes from Japanese game shows. Aly finds joy in the strange collection of prizes she’s got, despite her straight-laced personality. She would definitely provide some unique gifts for a Secret Santa exchange.
No: Paul
Paul is one of the most memorable of the boyfriends Jess has over the course of the series, though they date for one of the shortest chapters in her relationship history. He’s a great, creative guy. The trouble is, he tends to get a little too serious too quickly, and that can come across in his gifts.
When Paul and Jess first start dating, for example, he gives Jess tickets to a music festival in another country. His gift is incredibly thoughtful, but it’s also incredibly expensive and serious for someone he’s only been dating a few weeks. He would take a Secret Santa exchange way too seriously.
Yes: Winston
Winston is the kind of guy who knows his friends better than any of them would ever admit. He’s got inside jokes with everyone and he quickly recognizes when his friends are actually paying attention.
Winston is also a great gift-giver. He tailors his presents to his specific relationship with that person. When he needs to get Cece a Christmas gift, he orders a bean bag chair, which Schmidt thinks is ridiculous. In reality, it’s the perfect gift because it’s a reference to a game of Pictionary the two played in which Cece understood Winston’s drawing of a circle was a beanbag chair. He understands how Cece’s mind works better than most of their friends.
No: Kyle
Kyle only appears in a handful of episodes early in New Girl. He’s briefly Cece’s boyfriend, but he doesn’t put any effort into their relationship at all. In fact, Kyle doesn’t really understand the concept of gifts that aren’t about him.
He’s embarrassed when Cece wears the fake mustache Jess gets her, and he completely ignores the fact that Schmidt tries to get Cece the perfect custom scent blend perfume. Kyle also spends Valentine’s Day tripping on mushrooms instead of thinking about his girlfriend, so his bar for thinking of others is extremely low.
Yes: Jess
Jess might be one of the best gift-givers on the show. She’s so good that she puts Winston’s name into a Secret Santa gift exchange twice, leaving herself out completely. With her creativity and her love for any holiday that involves sharing with others, Jess might be one of the perfect Secret Santas on television.
Amongst her best gifts in the show are Cece’s fake mustache (because she knows how funny Cece will find it), sunglasses for Nick (though he ends up buying himself the same pair), an anatomically correct stuffed heart (for the early stages of a relationship), and the perfect pair of pants for Schmidt (to help him find himself again when he gets a little lost). Jess takes her time and is incredibly thoughtful with her gifts. When they get ruined, she’s also not afraid to think outside the box, like flying Reagan in to see Nick when the two are dating.
No: Reagan
Reagan has a high-powered job and she exhibits a certain level of sophistication that isn’t often seen in apartment 4D. Unfortunately, neither of those things make her great at reading a gifting situation.
When the roommates rally together to give Jess a meaningful Christmas experience, Reagan nearly spoils it because she’s bored providing the fake snow. Her other opportunity to give a gift involves bringing Jess jewelry as a thank you for Jess acting as Nick’s surrogate girlfriend while Reagan is away. She’s not great at reading the situation, completely missing how uncomfortable she makes Jess.
Yes: Nick
There are two very different Nicks when it comes to giving gifts. On the one hand, is the Nick who once gave Winston a plastic bucket full of peanuts and expected to be praised for it. On the other hand, there’s the Nick who missed a flight home for Christmas in the middle of the night because Jess needed to be cheered up by the lights on “Candy Cane Lane.” Nick is a bit of a conundrum when it comes to gifts.
While he certainly has the ability to give a fantastic gift, like the birthday surprise he plans for Jess in season three, there’s always the possibility that he gets someone the first thing that pops into his head. The truth is, even if Nick’s gift ends up being a bad one, it’s going to be one that you have stories about.
No: Schmidt
Schmidt means well. He really does. Schmidt wants to get someone the perfect present, like the custom scented perfume he makes for Cece in the first season. The trouble is that Schmidt is the kind of person who gives gifts based on the perception of the gift, or based on how he feels about the person in question.
That means that while he tries to be thoughtful with the perfume, he doesn’t actually consider what the perfume will smell like, leaving Cece with a bottle of liquid he describes as smelling like “a dirty dishtowel.”
