‘SNL’ Has a ‘Weird, Chaotic’ Holiday Party Tradition
While Saturday Night Live is known for its raucous, early-morning parties after each show, Bowen Yang says the cast has at least one other way to blow off steam each year around this time. It’s the annual SNL Garbage Party, a rager that Yang told PEOPLE is akin to a “chaotic potluck.”
“It’s our one moment of letting loose beyond the afterparties, which they’re hard to come by,” he said. “It’s hard for all of us to be in the same place at the same time, because not everybody goes to the afterparty, and people are tired, and it’s a big ask.”
SNL holiday parties used to be a different affair. Twenty years ago, the cast might have done a Secret Santa or white elephant gift exchange, which somehow resulted in a mess of hurt feelings. How so? “People were like, ‘Oh, I ended up with a bad one and this person got a good one,’” Yang explained, reminiscent of the time Michael Scott brought a $400 video iPod to The Office’s $20-limit Yankee Swap. “And so, Aidy Bryant and Kate McKinnon in their early days did away with that.”
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Bryant and McKinnon replaced the gift exchange with the Garbage Party — an anarchic shindig held immediately after the last read-through of the year, usually for the Christmas show. The only obligation for cast members? Bring an oddball contribution to the festivities.
“People will buy 20 cheeseburgers from Shake Shack, or you bring Jell-O shots from home, or you bring 30 little Funko Pops for people to take home,” Yang said. “Everyone just culls together just their weird, most random contributions essentially.”
The party gets started in the writers’ room, with no word from Yang on who has to clean up after everyone gets freaky. “We go upstairs to the offices, and we turn the lights off. We get party lights. It’ll be like someone’s contribution will be a karaoke machine, and it’s a mess, and it’s so fun.”
To cap things off, SNL daddy Lorne Michaels plays Santa Claus. Doesn’t sound like he puts on the red suit and beard, but he does distribute gifts to everyone. “I think part of his love language is gifting, gifting everything. He’ll have a birthday present for you every year,” said Yang. “And Christmas, he will give you preserves and jams from his farm, and it’s the most delicious raspberry jam you’ve ever eaten. I look forward to it every year. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.”
You’d think Michaels could afford the 2024 equivalent of video iPods in addition to jam from his farm, but I guess it’s the thought that counts. Yang insisted that “everyone’s truly psyched to get the jams every year.”
“The garbage party is our big tradition that we uphold,” Yang concluded, “and that’s all thanks to Kate and Aidy.”