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.
A few years ago, I posted a holiday puzzle that had been floating around the Internet for years. It was a list of Christmas songs and carols whose titles had been reworded, and it was up to the reader to identify the actual titles.
It was a popular post, but something about the list always bothered me. There were 21 reworded titles, which didn’t strike me as very Christmassy at all. I mean, why not 12? Or 24? Or, heck, 25?
So, I did something about it.
I added 10 new reworded titles to the list, bringing the total to 31, one for every day in December. Let’s see how many of you can crack all 31 titles, shall we? Enjoy!
1.) Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their belief.
2.) Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds.
3.) Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geological alpine formation.
4.) Nocturnal timespan of unbroken quietness.
5.) Embellish the interior passageways.
6.) An emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestial sphere.
7.) Twelve o’clock on a clement night witnessed its arrival.
8.) The Christmas preceding all others.
9.) Small municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem.
10.) In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children’s slumber furnishings.
11.) Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted, metallic, resonant cups.
12.) The first person nominative plural of a triumvirate of far eastern heads of state.
13.) Geographic state of fantasy during the season of Mother Nature’s dormancy.
14.) In awe of the nocturnal timespan characterized by religiosity.
15.) Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as an hallucinatory phenomenon for me.
16.) Expectation of arrival to populated areas by mythical, masculine perennial gift-giver.
17.) Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of frozen minute crystals.
18.) Tranquility upon the terrestial sphere.
19.) Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males.
20.) Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionistic cylinders.
21.) Jovial Yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us.
22.) Allow winter precipitation in the form of atmospheric water vapor in crystalline form to descend.
23.) A first-person observer witnessed a female progenitor engaging in osculation with a hirsute nocturnal intruder.
24.) Your continued presence remains the sole Yuletide request of the speaker in question.
25.) Permanent domicile during multiple specific celebratory periods.
26.) Diminutive person regarded as holy or virtuous known by the informal moniker shared by two former Russian tsars.
27.) More than a passing resemblance to an annual winter festival is emerging.
28.) Are you registering the same auditory phenomenon I am currently experiencing?
29.) Overhead at the summit of the suburban residence.
30.) Attractive or otherwise visually pleasing wood pulp product.
31.) Parasitic European shrub accompanied by a plant with prickly green leaves and baccate qualities.
How many did you unravel, fellow puzzlers? Let us know in the comments section below! We’d love to hear from you!
One government agency in England celebrates Christmas a little bit differently than most.
The GCHQ — or Government Communications Headquarters — provides security and intelligence services for the British government. Back when they were known as GC&CS — Government Code and Cypher School — they were responsible for funding Bletchley Park and its successes cracking the German “Enigma” code during World War II.
And now, they provide one of the coolest and puzzliest challenges of the year, designed for solvers aged eleven to eighteen to test their skills, hoping to inspire the next generation of puzzle solvers.
At GCHQ, we love creating puzzles and breaking codes. That’s why every year we create the GCHQ Christmas Challenge, a series of fiendish brainteasers and puzzles, designed by our very own team of codebreakers. It encourages children aged 11-18 to think laterally and work as a team, as well as showcasing some of the skills they might need to become a spy.
The puzzles are not designed to be solved alone, and each student will bring something different to the challenge. At GCHQ, we believe the right mix of minds enables us to solve seemingly impossible problems.
I’ve always been impressed with what festive puzzly efforts GCHQ brings each year, and I can’t wait to see what the 2024 edition has in store for solvers.
So, fellow puzzlers, do you accept this year’s Christmas Challenge? Let us know in the comments section below!
PuzzCulture 