Tonight’s dreamy-weamy Doctor Who Christmas special saw Clara and the Doctor team up with Santa Claus himself as they battled their way through layer after layer of monster-induced dreams until they finally woke up in the real world – or so we’re told…


“Everything except the very last scene is a dream,” confirmed Steven Moffat at a recent screening of Last Christmas. “Everything except the very last scene didn’t happen.”

But if that was real life, what’s the significance of the tangerine the camera lens lingers on in the final shot? Throughout the dream sequence it was Santa Claus’s calling card – but Santa’s not real… is he?

“Oh, Santa Claus actually exists,” said Moffat.

“The tangerine, of course, represents the fact that Santa Claus stage-managed the whole thing to get the Doctor and Clara back together, otherwise everything would be miserable and rubbish wouldn’t it?

“That’s what the tangerine’s about – it’s like the walking stick at the end of Miracle on 34th Street.”


So now you know: you have Santa to thank for that fact that Clara has decided to continue her travels with the Doctor – and of course for that piece of fruit at the bottom of your Christmas stocking…