It’s Christmas Day, fellow puzzlers, and it’s tradition around here to celebrate the holidays with a free puzzle to solve!
This year is no exception, as I’ve cooked up something festive and fun for you.
Our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles have a puzzle called Wordfinder, and when I thought of it, I immediately had the idea to do a holiday-themed version of it.
Merry Christmas, friends. May the holidays be kind to you.
The answers to the clues are in the diagram in their corresponding rows across and down, but the letters are rearranged and mixed together. Each letter is used only once, so be sure to cross it out when you have used it. All the letters will be used. Solve ACROSS and DOWN together to determine the correct letter where there is a choice. The first letter of each word is shown outside the diagram and next to each clue. The first answer, TINSEL, has been filled in as an example.
Now, there are a few caveats here. Obviously this is not a traditional crossword grid. It has no symmetry (either radial or axial), and it is littered with one- and two-letter entries, which are not allowed. There is also the small matter of the bottom left corner being completely disconnected from the rest of the grid.
Here is the empty grid with MERRY and CHRISTMAS preset (without the pencil blocking several squares):
Now, to stick to the reddit request, I left the grid mostly as is.
However, I could not in good conscience have part of the grid disconnected from the rest, so I removed a single black square in order to connect the grid fully.
There we go.
Oh. And one additional challenge: I only allotted myself ten minutes to fill the grid.
As usual in crossword construction, I tried to avoid abbreviations and variant spellings as much as possible (even with the two-letter entries), and keep the vocabulary as accessible as possible.
The only real challenge in this grid was finding a seven-letter word starting with R that aligned nicely with CHRISTMAS as the neighboring word.
In keeping with the holiday theme, I chose RAISINS, as the California Raisins and their long-lost classic Christmas special came to mind.
From that point, it was a pretty quick job filling in the rest of the grid.
There are more plurals than I’d prefer, and DYNAST is by far the most difficult entry in terms of vocabulary, but otherwise, I’m pleased with my nine minutes and thirteen seconds’ worth of work.
What do you think?
I might come back to this one and see if I could clean it up more. Eliminate all the plurals, or maybe put themed words for all the border words along the edge. Something to really challenge me.
Christmas has come and gone, but Hanukkah has only just begun, and thanks to the creative minds of George Barany and Michael Hanko, I’m delighted to have an additional puzzle to share with you all at this festive time!
George and Michael have titled their puzzle December 25, 2024 (clued to midweek difficulty), and they’ve provided the following preface:
This holiday puzzle, with its dual time options and its two sets of clues, offers you the gift of choice. To accentuate your experience of your holiday–whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah–choose the clue set that corresponds to your personal tradition. Or, to ramp up your puzzle’s level of difficulty, choose a clue set that is outside your personal tradition. However you choose to approach our puzzle, we wish you a happy and/or merry solve!
Reminder, a SINGLE answer grid is produced by solving from either clue set. George and Michael are grateful to Noam Elkies, Charles Flaster, Theresa Horan, and Markand Thakar for taking time from each of their busy holiday leadups to test solve both versions and make helpful suggestions that improved it.
By request of the constructors, if you like the puzzle, please spread the cheer to your own circle.
It’s Christmas Eve, fellow puzzlers, and it’s tradition around here to celebrate the holidays with a free puzzle to solve!
This year is no exception, as I’ve cooked up something festive and fun for you.
Our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles have a puzzle called First and Last, and when I thought of it, I immediately had the idea to do a holiday-themed version of it.
Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, friends. May the holidays be kind to you.
The answer to each clue can be found in the diagram. You can move up, down, backward, and forward, but not diagonally. Do not skip over any squares. The last letter of each answer is the first letter of the next answer; otherwise, each letter is used only once. The answer to the first clue begins in the outlined box, and the first and last letters of each answer are circled. Plus every word in the grid is festively themed. Good luck!
This holiday song was the first song played in space (during the flight of Gemini 6A in December 1965)
Stocking __
Santa has eight or nine of these, depending on the song
On the fifth day of Christmas, you get five of these
There are 35 different shapes possible for this
George Washington had a boozy recipe for this that included the instruction “Taste frequently”
“The Elves and the Shoemaker” were just one story attributed to brothers by this name
Holiday plant sometimes called “witches’ brooms”
Good choice for a Christmas tree
Scene featuring shepherds and magi (oh, and a baby, I guess)
The Christmas season, of yore
After leaving Bethlehem, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus traveled here
Okay. It says it’s definitely not a mimic. That’s good enough for me.
But maybe I should examine the rest of the box.
More eyes. And a mouth. And a warning to roll for Initiative.
Clearly nothing to worry about. Let’s open it up!
Yup, I was right, nothing to worry about! There are even cookies lurking under the packaging paper!
Oh, hey, there’s a note:
YOU ATTEMPT TO RETRIEVE THE COOKIES BY REACHING DOWN THE GULLET OF A PARTICULARLY OBVIOUS MIMIC. BECAUSE, WELL… COOKIES!
And you know what? The note was right. I grabbed those cookies like Gollum going after the One Ring.
At least if the mimic eats me, I’ll go out doing what I love. Eating cookies.
*various munching noises*
Sorry. Cookies.
Hey, wait, I didn’t get eaten by the mimic. What gives?
Oh, another note! Let’s see what it says:
YOU RETRIEVE THE COOKIES. THE MIMIC CLEARS ITS THROAT. YOU’VE SAVED IT FROM CHOKING. IT’S GRATEFUL. ITS FORM CHANGES. YOU NOTICE A FALSE BOTTOM TO THE BOX.
And you know what? This note was right too! There was a false bottom.
I pulled it up and discovered a beautiful wooden box.
It also had a note attached:
BEYOND THE SUGARY GUTS OF THE MIMIC LIES… THE LAIR OF THE DUNGEON MASTER.
YOU HAVE MASTERED IT. IT REVEALS ITS TREASURES TO YOU.
I couldn’t resist. I’d gone this far, risked life and limb for the greatest treasure of all — cookies — and discovered another reward.
I opened the box…
Allow me to explain, fellow puzzlers.
I am a man of many puzzly pursuits, and roleplaying games stand very high on that list. I’ve been running RPG games like Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars RPG, Dread, GURPS, See You Space Cowboy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG, and many others over the years.
Although I have had the pleasure of being a player in a few games, for the vast majority of that time, I’ve been running the games for others. Be it as a Storyteller, a Dungeon Master, or any of the other terms used to describe game masters for roleplaying systems, running an RPG is one of my favorite things in the world to do.
I get to tell stories with my friends, build a world with them, surprise them with plot twists and villainous plans, and watch them solve puzzles, unravel conspiracies, and defeat great evils with only their wits and some dice rolls.
It’s the best.
I’m currently the Dungeon Master for several campaigns, one of which features some of my lovely coworkers. And they decided to surprise me this holiday season with a small treasure trove of delights, including a notebook, stickers, dice, and a very lovely card.
And one of them went the extra mile to not only package this wonderful gift up with cookies and careful packaging, but to include a small quest for me as well.
Beware of the mimic, people!
Would I brave the potential danger of a mimic for cookies?
As you can see, the answer is yes. Obviously.
I am incredibly lucky to have friends and players like this, and I’m equally blown away by the kindness and whimsy involved in this present. And I simply couldn’t resist sharing the story with all of you.
It’s amazing what people can do with a marker, some construction paper, and a boatload of creativity.
PuzzCulture 