The Twelve Whos of Christmas: A Holiday Cookie Guessing Game

Last year, my family and I discovered something pretty cool about Santa Claus: he is a Time Lord.

It’s true, we did the math:

• Able to overcome limitations of time and space: Check.
• Has appeared in varying “versions” of himself for different generations and cultures: Check.
• Has a completely awesome-yet-unlikely form of universal transportation: Check.

Yup. Time Lord.

As a result, we came up with some gingerbread treats worthy of a Time Lord we called “The Twelve Whos of Christmas.” You can see our original idea in my “Lisa The Geek Mom” blog here.

One problem, however, was that there were only eleven Doctors at the time, so the TARDIS was happy to step in as time traveler number twelve, because she’s wonderful that way.

This year we know there will be twelve, and come Dec. 25, the eleventh Doctor will be killed off in true BBC Christmas Day fashion, ushering in the next series featuring the twelfth Doctor. This is an occasion certainly worthy of a new cookie.

Making the gingerbread men themselves isn’t hard. It is just a matter of taking ordinary gingerbread men and jazzing them up a bit, something that becomes a pretty fun family activity, particularly if you like to eat frosting.

Since I’m not a seasoned baker, I’m not going to commit you to any new and revolutionary gingerbread recipe. Any gingerbread (or sugar cookie) recipe is fine, as long as it is one intended for shaped cookies. I’ve even used plain old boxed brand gingerbread mix for our little Whos down in timey wimey Whoville.

First, take a plain old gingerbread man cookie cutter and cut out at least twelve Time Lords. Since this is a family project for all ages, I’m not going to get too elaborate in the decorating, but simply give some “hints” to each Doctor’s distinct look.  I’ve included some templates at the end of this post that the geeklings and I cooked up, but feel free to “outdo” us in imagination. That’s what it’s all about. Don’t forget to leave some cookie scraps to make simple accessories like Eleven’s Fez, the Two’s flute, or Seven’s umbrella. These can be attached with icing after they are baked.

Once you cook them, wait until they are completely cool before icing. This is the hardest part for my kids (and, yes, for me too). Pre-colored cookie frosting works best if you are dealing with kids.

With the first eleven cookies painted (and after the inevitable debate over who the coolest Doctor is), the fun Christmas guessing game begins.

When it was announced Peter Capaldi would be the next Doctor, my first thought was “cool,” and the next one was, “What will he wear?” There has been much speculation on this, so we decided to make a holiday game of it before the actual “reveal.”

Everyone grabbed a “naked” Doctor cookie, and designed an outfit for the twelfth Doctor.  My 11-year-old said Twelve would be colorful and a combination of the first eleven. I thought a hipster t-shirt, blazer, and jeans would be a tribute to Capaldi’s punker past. My 4-year-old just felt he needed as much frosting as possible because Twelve will be “sweet.” When the world finally gets to see what Twelve’s official look is, the one of us with the closest match gets to choose the next dinner destination (within reason).

No matter what he looks like, at least in cookie form he’ll be a Ginger… bread  man.