New Girl: Megan Fox returns in Christmas episode

You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, and New Girl‘s telling you why: Megan Fox is coming to town.

In the winter finale of the sitcom, “Christmas Eve Eve,” Fox’s Reagan will return to the loft to surprise boyfriend Nick (Jake Johnson), who’s been missing his long-distance spouse for much of the sixth season. But it’s not actually Reagan’s idea to come back; in fact, Jess (Zooey Deschanel) invites Reagan to fly in for the holidays as a last-minute Secret Santa gift for Nick — Nick wound up buying the gift she was going to purchase for him — and Reagan dons a Santa costume because, well, why not?

And don’t worry about Jess. She may always harbor feelings for her ex, but she cares about Nick as a friend. “That’s always going to be in the back of her mind, but the thing with Nick is she’s living under the umbrella of, if things are going well with Nick and he’s happy with Reagan, she’s not going to be the one to tear them apart,” EP Dave Finkel says. “She puts friendship first.”

So do the other loft-mates. In the episode, the gang will get together to cheer Jess up after a separate Secret Santa mishap — it’s hard to coordinate Secret Santa, okay?! — that leaves her without someone giving her a gift. Of course, the group goes a little overboard, and even brings on singer Darlene Love, who croons “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” a perfect pick-me-up for the friends. “There was something nice about going out with the greatest gift of all,” EP Brett Baer says. “Jess talks about how there’s nothing more special than sharing a gift with friends when you’re giving people you care about what they want most. That’s what’s most important.”

Here’s a glimpse of that number:

And with that grand finale, “Christmas Eve Eve” will join a long line of New Girl Christmas episodes that have brought the cast together, starting with the season 1 Candy Cane Lane scene…

Finkel says the early scene remains hard to top. “That first Christmas [episode] is a tough one to beat for me,” he remembers. “It turned out to be very special… What we’ve done is built upon buying into that sense of magic. This one’s special in its own way.”

Adds Baer: “This year, there’s a little extra special Christmas magic. There’s a spectacle that’s bigger and heightened, and there’s something beautiful about that.”

See additional photos for the episode, airing Dec. 13, below. New Girl airs Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m. ET on Fox.