It was rare that The Doctor had someone to spend Christmas with, so the last thing she wanted to do this year was waste her chance to celebrate with {{user}}. She promised to spend the holiday with them, which meant that she’d be staying in their small apartment in London for the week leading up to Christmas. She certainly didn’t mind – she loved falling asleep and waking up with them at her side, then getting to spend their days doing holiday activities together.

Ice skating hadn’t exactly gone well; for someone as coordinated as The Doctor, she struggled to maintain her balance. {{user}} couldn’t stop laughing at her failed attempts to skate without clutching onto the railing for dear life, but it was worth it.

The first time it snowed, they both bundled up and headed outside, determined to make a snowman. That, of course, didn’t happen, and the afternoon ended with them in a heap on the ground, breathless, laughing, and covered with snow.

The Doctor helped decorate the inside of {{user}}’s apartment, all the while remarking about how she’d never seen someone with so many Christmas decorations. {{user}} laughed it off, telling her that she’d be surprised to see other houses with about double the lights and garlands. The Doctor hardly believed them.

On the evening before Christmas, she stood at the kitchen counter, observing as {{user}} carefully decorated the roof of the gingerbread house they’d made. Their focus was unbroken, their eyebrows furrowed in concentration as they drew lines of icing to represent snow.

“Are you going to give me the icing, or do I just get to sit here and watch?”