While most people were cutting cookies into Christmas trees or snowmen, one artist created a Xenomorph from the Alien franchise out of gingerbread. The Xenomorph first appeared in Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror classic Alien, but has since appeared in a number of sequels, crossovers, video games, and comic books.

As depicted in the first Alien movie, a Xenomorph starts off its life inside an egg that holds a creature called a Facehugger. When disturbed, the Facehugger jumps from the egg attaching itself to the face of its new host. After a short period of time, a baby Xenomorph will erupt from its host’s chest, only to quickly grow into a fierce killing machine. The development of the Xenomorph has remained basically the same over the last 40 years, with the prequels Prometheus and Alien: Covenant giving the origins of the Xenomorph, but this is the first time that gingerbread has ever been added into the equation.

Posting on her Instagram account, artist caroline.d.eriksson shared an image of herself next to a Xenomorph sculpture she made entirely out of gingerbread. In a comment on her post, caroline.d.eriksson explained that it took her around 3-5 weeks to complete her sculpture. It took her one week to build the overall structure, and another 2-5 weeks to make the gingerbread dough, bake the dough, and put the pieces together using burnt sugar. The artist’s full design and post can be seen below.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the first Alien film, and the series doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. A sequel to Alien: Covenant doesn’t look to be happening right away, but the Alien saga will surely continue in other media. A rumored game called Alien: Blackout looks like it could be released in a few years, and an Alien TV show is also in development. A new documentary called Memory - The Origins Of Alien will also be released this year to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Scott’s original horror classic.

Making sculptures of iconic movie characters isn’t anything new, but building characters out of gingerbread certainly is. Gingerbread may be an unconventional material for building a life-size sculpture, but it is definitely fitting for the holiday season. Most people make gingerbread houses during the holidays, but this artist took that to a whole other level. This artist’s idea for a holiday pastime is not only unique, but makes her one of the biggest Alien fans out there.

More: The Predator Alternate Ending Had Alien Franchise Connections

Source: caroline.d.eriksson