DECEMBER 16

Tony walked into the office whistling "The Twelve Days of Christmas". He'd been singing, humming or whistling it since he woke up. December 16 was Secret Santa day.

Every year, Tony would buy a whole bunch of something – some small gift – and he'd hide them everywhere in the office. It was never anything big or expensive. One year it was just bundles of candy canes. One year it was small packets of peppermint hot chocolate. One year it was silver jingle bells tied with red ribbons, although Director Morrow had ordered everyone to "take those infernal things home with you, and that's an order!" at the end of the day. Tony had put bells on the permanent "Naughty List" that year.

As far as he knew, the only ones who had figured out who the true Secret Santa was were Abby and McGee. He'd run into them the year before last very early in the morning as he was planting gifts and they were coming in early to do some computer updating or something. Abby nearly burst into tears, she thought it was so sweet, and McGee was … well … McGee was speechless. He simply couldn't believe that Tony was spending his time and his money hiding presents for virtually everyone in the office. Tony had sworn them to secrecy, and they hadn't told a soul. Abby always offered to help, but this was Tony's tradition, and he'd managed to make her understand.

He'd started the whole Secret Santa thing when he was ten years old. His dad was particularly stressed at work and that stress was rubbing off on everyone. Tony had taken some of his allowance money and bought little boxes of candy, enough for everyone on the staff, plus his mom and dad and a few neighbors. It had cost him about $20. He'd wrapped them all in silver paper and printed off labels on the computer. Then he left one for everyone, slightly hidden but in places where they'd be sure to find them. He got a big kick out of hiding on the stairs watching the housekeeper and the butler and his tutor and the gardener and everyone else find their tiny gifts and then look around to try and figure out where they'd come from. Ever since then, wherever he was at Christmastime, he played Secret Santa.

Tony had totally scored on his Secret Santa gifts this year. He'd found a book warehouse that had miniature copies of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" for a buck a piece. He'd bought 75 of them and tied white ribbons around each one. Then, just after two o'clock that morning, he'd come back into the building and dropped one on every single desk. He'd even managed to get one into the Director's office, since they were thin enough to slide under the door. He'd left one for Palmer and Ducky and even Gibbs. Gibbs would never admit it, but he liked the surprise gifts (except the year that the gift was gingerbread-flavored coffee). Gibbs suspected it was Tony who did the gifting, but he never said anything. It reminded him of those magical "Christmas things" that Shannon and Kelly used to like so much, and he actually looked forward to it every year.

Tony walked in whistling "The Twelve Days of Christmas" just as Ziva was getting to her desk.

"What's this?" she asked, picking the small beribboned book out of her rolodex.

McGee smiled and glanced at Tony. "It's a Secret Santa gift," he said, finding his own copy in the pocket of the jacket he'd left on the back of his chair the night before.

"Secret Santa?" Ziva said, with a curious look.

"It happens every year," Gibbs said, as he walked in with coffee. "Someone leaves little gifts on everyone's desk one day during the holidays. Everyone gets something, and no one knows who it is." Gibbs' gift was hidden under his phone.

"Remember the year with the bells?" Tony said, pulling his little book off his bulletin board (because like all good Secret Santas, Tony left himself a present every year too, just to throw people off).

Abby bounced into the squad room, holding her Secret Santa gift high in the air. "The bell year was fun," Abby said with a smile at Tony.

"A little goes a long way, though," Tony admitted. Abby nodded.

"And no one knows where they come from?" Ziva said.

"It's a total mystery, my dear," Ducky said as he came into the bullpen. "If anyone is free at lunchtime, Mr. Palmer is going to regale us all with a reading of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" down in the morgue."

Tony looked at Ducky with concern. "I don't know whether to be scared of that or not." Gibbs chuckled.

Ziva picked up her phone.

"Whatcha doin', Zee-vah?" Tony teased from across the way.

"I'm going to pull the security footage from last night and early this morning," she said. "Whoever left these has to be on the footage. We can find out who it is."

"Um, Ziva?" McGee began, with just a touch of panic in his voice. "It's supposed to be a secret."

"Hence the term 'Secret Santa'," Abby continued, somewhat alarmed that Tony might be discovered.

"But don't you want to know?" Ziva said, looking at her colleagues with confusion.

"No," they all said in unison.

"It takes the fun away if we find out who it is, my dear," Ducky said as he walked over and took the handset out of Ziva's hand and placed it back on the phone cradle. "It's obviously something that someone very much enjoys doing, and it would ruin it for them if we found out who it was."

Ziva looked around at her co-workers, who all seemed genuinely worried that she would unmask the secret gift-giver. She shrugged.

"I don't understand you people sometimes," she said. But she took another look at her tiny copy of Clement C. Moore's poem and smiled. Then she put it under the small menorah she had on top of the filing cabinet.

DECEMBER 17

December 17th – the fourth day of Christmas – was the date of the annual NCIS office party. This was an after-work party, with music, food and some very spiked punch, and was mandatory for all. Even Gibbs had to stay at the office and at least make an appearance.

Tony walked into the conference room wearing a red shirt with a green tie and with a sprig of holly pinned to his lapel. Everyone else was festively attired as well; even Ziva had little dreidl earrings. Abby was wearing a green t-shirt with "Santa's Naughty Elf" written on it in red, and McGee was wearing a red sweater with white snowflakes; a sweater that Tony suspected some female relative had made for him.

Director Shepherd made the annual, "You've all worked hard this year, and your country thanks you" speech, after which she started to head back to her office until Gibbs commented that "Jenn Scrooge" wouldn't even require a change in monograms. There was a moment of silence and then everyone laughed as the Director grabbed a glass of sparkling cider and commandeered an entire tray of mini spring rolls.

Tony liked parties, generally, and he was okay with this one, but he knew that it would end the same way it always did – with a handful of slightly drunk women chasing him around the room with mistletoe. And so it came to pass that Bobbi from Personnel, along with Greta and Jeri from Word Processing, spent the next hour or so trying to corner Tony. Thankfully, the conference room was crowded and there were a lot of male clerks and I.T. guys who were happy to run interference. Tony managed to stay one step ahead of the girls until they got tired of the game and sat down near the dessert tray.

"Don't get me wrong," Tony said to Max, the evidence tech he was using for camouflage in the corner, "mistletoe is not, in itself, a bad thing. But it has to be used responsibly."

Max nodded earnestly and sympathetically, but he also closed his eyes and made his annual Christmas wish – "Just let me spend one Saturday night as Tony DiNozzo."