Mindy Kaling Says B.J. Novak Will Dress Up As Santa For Her Kids As New Tradition

Mindy Kaling and B.J. Novak are making new special memories together. 

“The Mindy Project” creator revealed during a virtual interview with fashion designer Tory Burch on Friday that she plans to have her co-star of “The Office” come to her home dressed as Santa Claus on Christmas Day to surprise her 3-year-old daughter, Katherine.

“My daughter and I are going to make cookies and apple cider and we’re going to be in the kitchen,” Kaling said. “Her godfather is B.J. Novak, and he is going to show up … and go to our living room where the tree is, in a Santa costume.”

Kaling explained that this will be Novak’s first time dressing up as Santa for his goddaughter. The actor said she had previously taken Katherine to see Santa at their local mall in Los Angeles, but was unable to do so this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. She is also a mother to her 3-month-old son, Spencer. 

In order to successfully pull off the Novak-as-Santa ruse, Kaling told Burch that Novak will ring bells from her living room while she and her daughter are baking in their kitchen. 

“I’m going to go, ‘Kit what do you think that is?’” Kaling said. “And B.J., as dressed as Santa, is going to be asleep on the sofa with a bag because he needed to take a rest.” (See the full interview below.)

Kaling and Novak’s longstanding friendship has been the subject of speculation for some time.

The two dated while working together in the early days of NBC’s “The Office.” 

Kaling has often spoken publicly about their relationship, telling Good Housekeeping in 2019 that since their breakup, Novak had become “more like family now than a platonic friend.”

She also described Novak as “a real staple in my household.”

But as for the early days of her relationship with Novak, Kaling told Howard Stern in 2014 that she would have married her “Office” co-star had he proposed to her when they were dating. 

“I was 24 … but for the record, if anyone asked me to marry me I would have said ‘yes,’” she said with a laugh.