Counting Down the Hours With Some Holiday Trivia!

Posted on December 24, 2020 by gmdirect

As you well know, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers, normally we post a puzzle to celebrate a given holiday.

But we just did that for Thanksgiving.

So, instead, how about we switch things up a bit and offer you an advent calendar’s worth of holiday trivia to celebrate the festive season?

That’s right, twenty-four questions on holiday pop culture from around the world. How does that sound?

Feel free to cherry-pick from these questions for your own Yuletide trivia. We’ve tried to keep it relatively easy and accessible, though a few tougher historical questions might’ve snuck in alongside the song trivia, the reindeer trivia, and the food trivia.

Enjoy!

muppet christmas carol

1. How many ghosts are there in A Christmas Carol?

2. Red and green are the two colors most associated with Christmas. Which are the two other colors, also named in a Burl Ives song, that are also extremely popular in this season?

3. In the UK, which Christmas food is it considered good luck to eat one of on each of the 12 days of Christmas?

4. In the song “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” the Grinch is called all kinds of names, but one particular trio of insults, one right after the other, differs by only a single letter. What are those three words?

5. Which two of the reindeer are named after weather phenomenon?

6. What year was Christmas declared a federal holiday in the United States?

Christmas theme, sales, Happy Santa Claus in a snowy forest, Santa on the background of a winter forest, Russian Santa Claus (Grandfather Frost), Santa Claus are near his reindeers in harness.

7. Which country has a tradition of a witch dropping gifts for children through the chimney at Christmas?

8. Which was the last state in the United States to declare Christmas a legal holiday?

9. How many reindeer were in the story “Twas the Night Before Christmas?”

10. The film Miracle on 34th Street depicted events at what famous department store?

11. What dish was served by Mrs. Cratchit in A Christmas Carol? (Hint: it is also mentioned in the song “We Wish You a Merry Christmas.”)

12. Which of Santa’s reindeer is named after another animal?

mlaw-121205

13. The red and white costume of Santa was allegedly first introduced by which beverage manufacturer?

14. Which President, a famous conservationist, objected to a Christmas tree in the White House?

15. Which spirit is traditionally added to butter and served with Christmas pudding?

16. In Spain, it’s considered good luck to eat one of these foods for each chime of the clock for the new year. What food is it?

17. In the American version of The Office, salesman Dwight portrayed Belsnickel instead of Santa for one of the company’s holiday parties. Instead of naughty or nice, what two adjectives did Belsnickel choose between when gauging the behavior of everyone?

18. Who was the first President to have a tree in the White House?

the grinch

19. True story. I had a dog named Chestnut who stared at the stereo speaker in confusion every time a certain holiday ditty played. What was its title?

20. What is the most popular meal for Christmas in Japan?

21. The name of what Christmas song was originally called “Tinkle Bells” until the writer’s wife pointed out that tinkle also means pee?

22. In what Central American country might you find yourself kicking off the holiday season by burning the devil on December 7th while sweeping your house?

23. Which ocean is Christmas Island located in?

24. What is the name of the Grinch’s dog?

Do you have any favorite nuggets of holiday trivia? Please share it with us in the comment section below! We’d love to hear from you.

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Make the Season Bright (and Puzzly)!

Posted on December 22, 2020 by gmdirect

Christmas is fast approaching, but there’s still time to put a nice puzzly spin on this festive holiday.

Naturally, we have a few ideas for how to do that without shelling out more of your hard-earned cash. (This is why you won’t see puzzle boxes or those marble-run boxes for gift cards here. This is all DIY!)

So let’s look at some puzzle-inspired ways to enhance your Yuletide endeavors!

[Image courtesy of Destination Imagination.]

Scavenger Hunt / Puzzle Hunt

Yes, this is always the first suggestion on our list because it’s a fun idea you can tailor to any age group. Whether they’re solving riddles, figuring out vague references to places in the house, or simply searching for gifts like Easter eggs, it can freshen up the Christmas morning experience to exercise their brains before they put their arms to work tearing open wrapping paper.

puzzlelove

Puzzles for Presents / Puzzle Password

I know a couple who absolutely love cryptic-style crossword clues, and on more than one occasion, before one gives the other a birthday or Christmas gift, they’ll have to solve a cryptic clue.

Often they’re about the couple themselves, or multiple clues will spell out a message. It’s a sweet little puzzly way to “earn” your gifts, if you’re into that sort of thing.

You can easily do this with kids by pretending the wrapped gifts are “locked” and they have to figure out a code or find a “key” to free the present. (Heck, some ribbons are so resilient that you really can lock up a present!)

daggertrap

Paper Locks

Similarly, you can create actual paper locks to be opened or employ the puzzly art of letterlocking to create a little mechanical puzzle to be unraveled before opening a gift.

There are some wonderful DIY tutorials and YouTube videos out there detailing how to create these whimsical little challenges, and it’s pretty impressive how much you can do with some paper, glue, and creativity.

[Image courtesy of Nadim’s Craft.]

Origami Puzzle Box

And speaking of all the things you can do with paper, it should come as no surprise that there are puzzle boxes out there that you can create with the Japanese paper-folding art of origami.

Some are simple, some are complex, and yes, none of these will stop a child determined to get to that gift, but these are wonderfully intricate and stylish ways to present someone you care about with a gift experience they’re remember.

Do you have any suggestions for making the holiday season puzzlier? Let us know in the comment section below! We’d love to hear from you.

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The Internet Rallies Together to Solve a Fall Guys Jigsaw Puzzle!

Posted on December 18, 2020 by gmdirect

[Image courtesy of Fabrik Brands.]

It’s always fun when companies use puzzles as part of their marketing campaign. We’ve seen it loads of times over the years with varying degrees of success.

On the plus side, there was the intriguing trailer hunt for the Cartoon Network show Infinity Train, and the excitement when Game of Thrones launched a viral challenge where folks hunted down copies of the Iron Throne around the world.

On the minus side, there was the Busch Beer Pop Up Schop promotion where days of little puzzles led to hundreds more attendees showing up to the event than expected, and many were turned away disappointed when the free beer and merch dried up quickly.

I think my favorite thing about all of these puzzly campaigns is how people from all over the Internet rally together to solve them. They share information, theories, speculation, and general enthusiasm, driving each other toward a solution.

We got to see another example of collective puzzle-solving on the internet recently for fans of Fall Guys.

[Image courtesy of Wired.]

Fall Guys, for the uninitiated, is a game where dozens of players can compete in silly obstacle courses, tag-style chase games, and other sporty competitions as these goofy little costumed toddling characters, the fall guys.

It’s great fun and rapidly became one of the go-to games for streamers on YouTube to share their successes, frustrations, and all the shenanigans involved in playing.

The team behind Fall Guys, Mediatonic, teased the third season of Fall Guys by launching Operation #JigSawus, wherein they sliced a promotional photo into three hundred pieces and distributed them to fans across a number of different Twitter and Instagram accounts and Discord servers.

Then, it was up to the fans. Would people put aside the competitiveness that made Fall Guys so fun in order to find out just what the jigsaw would reveal?

Of course they would. Puzzle people are good people.

[Image courtesy of Mediatonic.]

It took only a few hours for the entire image to be revealed: a promotional poster for the theme for Fall Guys Season 3, Winter Knockout.

Yes, most fans probably assumed that the third season, launching in wintertime, would have a winter theme, but hey, it’s a bit of fun, and another nice reminder of how people can come together to solve puzzles and support each other.

Puzzles really do make the world a better place.

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A Bit of Holiday Wordplay Around the Virtual Fireplace!

Posted on December 11, 2020 by gmdirect

Long-time readers know that we often host in-house wordplay contests. Not only do we invite our friends at Penny/Dell Puzzles to participate, but our fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers as well!

It’s the holiday season, so we embraced it with this month’s game! Yup, it’s a Penny Pressmas and a Jingle Dell Rock!

Essentially, we challenged our fellow puzzlers to unleash their punny creativity on all things holidays. They could mix and match puzzles with holiday songs, seasonal trappings, and more!

They could create their own puzzly holiday and tell us about the traditions and celebrations! Heck, they could make a puzzly holiday card, if they wished! Anything that struck their fancy, so long as it was puzzle-fueled and holiday flavored.

So, without further ado, let’s see what they came up with!

Some submissions stuck to our traditional holidays:

Here We Come A-Puzzling

Holi-Daisy

It’s the Most Wonderful Timed Framework of the Year

God Bless Us Every One and Only!

Blackout! Friday

The First and Last Noel

Merry Christmas to All Fours, and to All a Good Night!

Others suggested new puzzly holidays:

Saturnabout-nalia

Fest-and-Last-ivus

Boxes Day / Letterboxes Day

All Four Kwanzaa

Yule Know the Odds

“I tried to make a crossword without a certain letter in it… but I couldn’t manage it. Alas, my No-L puzzle will have to be submitted another holiday.” — a participant who wishes to remain anonymous.

One clever puzzler submitted this delightful visual mashup! Do you get it?

Screen Shot 2020-12-10 at 9.40.13 AM

And finally, your humble PN blogger couldn’t resist throwing in his own little bit of puzzly holiday fun for you…

He knows when you’re sleeping
And he knows when you’re awake
Plus he knows if you’ve been BAD or GOOD (based on which answer fits in the available grid squares)
Perhaps be good for goodness’ sake

You might not know his name
So let’s all take time to meet him now
Oh who could this figure be
Let’s all say his name aloud

Volumes of puzzles to deliver each year
In dozens of places, and even right here!
Now you know of the legend, you’ve read all the rhymes
Gotta ask Sylla Claustic to make it on time!

Do you have any punny puzzly holiday ideas? Let us know in the comments below. We’d love to hear from you!

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It’s a Murderer’s Rows Garden of Plant Punnery!

Posted on November 13, 2020 by gmdirect

You may be familiar with the board game Schmovie or hashtag games on Twitter.

For years now, we’ve been collaborating on puzzle-themed hashtag games with our pals at Penny Dell Puzzles, and this month’s hook was #PennyDellPuzzlePlants. Today’s entries all mash up Penny Dell puzzles with trees, flowers, shrubs, landscaping, gardening terms, and more things associated with the world of plants!

Examples include: Sunflower Power, Broccoli and Mortar, or Sodoku.

So, without further ado, check out what the puzzlers at PuzzleNation and Penny Dell Puzzles came up with!

Wood Seek: Missing Wist…eria

Sweet AlysSum Totals

Snow Drop-Ins / Snowdrop-Outs

DianthusGrammless

Lottomatoes

HydranJigsaw Puzzle

BattleRoseHips

Piece by Piece Lily

Stargazer Lilies and Yarrow

Clematis Figures

Maxi-Pointsettia

Pointsettia the Way

Blackout-Eyed Susan

Bull’s-Eye Spirea

DaffoDilemma

Forsythia ‘n’ dAftodils

Forsythia-Fit / Forsythia Corners

Four-Fit-Me-Not

Four Leaf Clover-Somes

These Three Leaf Lucky Clover

Three’s ComPansy / Three’s ComPeony

Chestnut Solitaire

Fiddlehead Ferns-Frame

Fiddleheads & Tails

ChamomileFlage

ColumBingo

Crisscross-santhemum

Amaryllist-a-Crostic

Carry-Clovers

Violetter Power

Stretch Jacob’s Ladders

Secret Mums the Word

Hedge-agrams

Shasta Daisy

Tossing and Turnips

Two At A Time-lips / Tulip at a Time

Delphiniumber Square

Dellphinium

Penny Cypress

Rake It from There

Thymed Lattice Framework

Cold Framework

One intrepid puzzler wrote a lovely little piece about looking for puzzly ideas for the hashtag game around the house:

For inspiration, I looked out over my MonStara and Spiderweb house plants and on to my garden, which is a bit of a mishmosh: the Digitalis Display is next to the Face to Fatsia, the Johnny Double Jump Ups border the AbaColeus, and the Starspell of Bethlehem shadows the patch where I tried growing Share-a-lettuce last year, but the bunnies ate it. Perhaps they took it literally. At least the Sudokudzu and MixMustard haven’t invaded and overtaken everything!

Members of the PuzzleNation readership also got in on the fun when we spread the word about this hashtag game online!

Twitter user @pauliscool1927 quickly replied with an idea, offering up the delightful ReallyLily as an option!

Have you come up with any Penny Dell Puzzle Plants entries of your own? Let us know! We’d love to see them!

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