The contest is over! The results have been tallied and a winner chosen.

I received a total of 226 noted answers (and 7 answers via email and PMs from non-deviants).

163 of them were right. (consuming seven packets of my post-its)

Awesome job to those who participated! But there can be only one winner.

And that person is…

!! Her name was drawn at random from my box of post-its.

Congrats and enjoy the six-month deviantART subscription!

…

…

Okay, so after I got a hundred-some more entries than I expected, I decided to add a few more winners in the spirit of the holidays.

(15 entries) and (13 entries) earned three-month subscriptions for getting the mot entries in this contest! YAY! So puzzle savvy, I’m amazed.

This contest was lots of fun. I think I’ll do this again at some point.

.

.

.

.

Also a belated congrats to for grabbing the 50K kiriban.

.

.

.

.

Happy holidays, people. Whatever you celebrate, if you celebrate anything at all, enjoy the rest of the year.



-Cori

I've decided to hold a bit of a contest with the remaining time before the holidays, the winner of the contest to receive an awesome prize on the 25th of December.

The Rules

The contest is over! Thanks for playing.

Puzzle One -> [link] - Puzzle Two -> [link] - Puzzle Three -> [link] - Puzzle Four -> [link]
Puzzle Five -> [link] - Puzzle Six -> [link] - Puzzle Seven -> [link] - Puzzle Eight -> [link]
Puzzle Nine -> [link] - Puzzle Ten -> [link] - Puzzle Eleven -> [link] - Puzzle Twelve -> [link]

Puzzle Number Eleven

Cryptic Christmas

1. A garbled German trough.
2. Christmas plant heard a dart's lower digit.
3. In satin seldom, found on a tree.
4. Ornamental art form shares.
5. Beneficent monarch, sews clean, when confused.
6. Yuletide mother is in army disarrayed.
7. Christmas, without the 12th letter.

What are they?

--

BONUS PUZZLE Number Twelve!

(because I had twelve to put up and I fell behind at some point )

Christmas Song Anagrams

Rearrange the capital letters to form common Christmas songs.

1. MAN WEARY AGAIN
2. Did Santa forget to LATCH ELK SHED?
3. Sue asked Santa if he could GET HER NEW SKI mended.
4. SIR ACTS HUMBLE at this time of year.
5. Santa TOLD JOEY, "THROW food to the reindeer!"
6. In the movie, was ACTOR SIMS THERE?
7. WILT DONNER WANDER? He'd better be there Christmas Eve!
8. TWO LISTEN to the carol.
9. Elves, in a NUMB STATE, AS Christmas draws near.
10. ACKNOWLEDGE SONG IS a Christmas one.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Answers

Puzzle Eleven:

1. manger ('German' mixed up - garbled)
2. mistletoe
3. tinsel (saTIN SELdom)
4. decoration (art deco)
5. King Wenceslas ('sews clean' mixed up - confused)
6. Mary ('army' mixed up - disarrayed)
7. noel (the twelfth letter of the alphabet is L - no L)

Puzzle Twelve:

1. Away in a Manger
2. Deck the Halls
3. We Three Kings
4. Blue Christmas
5. Joy to the World
6. O Christmas Three
7. Winter Wonderland
8. Let it Snow
9. Must be Santa
10. Good King Wenceslas

I've decided to hold a bit of a contest with the remaining time before the holidays, the winner of the contest to receive an awesome prize on the 25th of December.

The Rules

The contest is over! Thanks for playing.

Puzzle One -> [link] - Puzzle Two -> [link] - Puzzle Three -> [link] - Puzzle Four -> [link]
Puzzle Five -> [link] - Puzzle Six -> [link] - Puzzle Seven -> [link] - Puzzle Eight -> [link]
Puzzle Nine -> [link] - Puzzle Ten -> [link] - Puzzle Eleven -> [link] - Puzzle Twelve -> [link]

Puzzle Number Ten

Word Scramble

Using only the letters:

BLITZEN (one of the reindeer - named for lightning)

Find at least twenty-five new words. They must be words that can be found in an English dictionary, and must contain at least two letters.

Example: the word 'ten' can be made from the given letters.

(Yes, it can be done - I'm at well over thirty)

.

.

.

.

.

.

Answer

Blitz, Inlet, Belt, Bent, Bile, Bite, Lent, Line, Lien, Lint, Lite, Nite, Tile, Tine, Ben, Bet, Bin, Bit, Lei, Let, Lie, Lit, Net, Nil, Ten, Tie, Til, Tin, Zit, Be, In, It…

There are plenty more.

I've decided to hold a bit of a contest with the remaining time before the holidays, the winner of the contest to receive an awesome prize on the 25th of December.

The Rules

The contest is over! Thanks for playing.

Puzzle One -> [link] - Puzzle Two -> [link] - Puzzle Three -> [link] - Puzzle Four -> [link]
Puzzle Five -> [link] - Puzzle Six -> [link] - Puzzle Seven -> [link] - Puzzle Eight -> [link]
Puzzle Nine -> [link] - Puzzle Ten -> [link] - Puzzle Eleven -> [link] - Puzzle Twelve -> [link]

Puzzle Number Nine

To solve this puzzle, find the first letters of these famous people’s surnames (last names), then unscramble those seven letters to form the name of a notable Christmas figure.

1 - I am married to one of the Beatles and am known around the world for my avant-garde musical style.

2 - I am one of the famous motion picture producers in the world with 59 Academy Award nominations, 26 Oscars, and 7 Emmys Awards. My first films were called 'Newman Laugh-O Grams'.

3 - I am considered the “Great Ancestor” of the Egyptians and am husband to the beautiful Nefertiari.

4 - I am the most talented commander in history. One of my highest achievements was marching my war elephants over the Pyrenees and the Alps to win dramatic victories in northern Italy.

5 - I am the most successful female country singer in America, with twenty-five hit singles and forty-one top-ten albums, and I am the only artist to score a number-one hit single in each of the past four decades.

6 - I organized the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, was named Man of the Year, and am currently a director of the Coca-Cola Company

7 - I am one of the biggest names in the Protestant Reformation and am well known for working to translating the Bible into the language of the people, rather than keeping it in Latin.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Answer

1. Yoko Ono
2. Walt Disney
3. Pharaoh Ramses II
4. Hannibal
5. Dolly Parton
6. Peter Ueberroth
7. Martin Luther

Letters: ODRHPUL

Unscrambled: RUDOLPH

I've decided to hold a bit of a contest with the remaining time before the holidays, the winner of the contest to receive an awesome prize on the 25th of December.

The Rules

The contest is over! Thanks for playing.

Puzzle One -> [link] - Puzzle Two -> [link] - Puzzle Three -> [link] - Puzzle Four -> [link]
Puzzle Five -> [link] - Puzzle Six -> [link] - Puzzle Seven -> [link] - Puzzle Eight -> [link]
Puzzle Nine -> [link] - Puzzle Ten -> [link] - Puzzle Eleven -> [link] - Puzzle Twelve -> [link]

Puzzle Number Eight

Two men are standing at a holiday party. One man turns to the other and says, "How many kids do you have now?"

"Three," the other replies.

"And how old are they again? I forget."

The man grins. "Tell you what - you like math, so we'll do it this way. The product of my kids' ages is 36."

"That's not enough information!" the first man protests.

"Well..." The man thinks. "The sum of my kids' ages is the number of the bus I rode in on this morning."

The first man blinks, but then frowns. "That still doesn't tell me enough."

"My oldest kid's name is Steve."

The first man grins at that and nods.

How old are the man's three kids and what number bus did he ride in on this morning?

.

.

.

.

.

.

Answer

Start by finding all the ways to make a product of 36. There are eight possibilities:
1x1x36
1x2x18
1x3x12
1x4x9
1x6x6
2x2x9
2x3x6
3x3x4

Then find their sums.
1+1+36 = 38
1+2+18 = 21
1+3+12 = 16
1+4+9 = 14
1+6+6 = 13
2+2+9 = 13
2+3+6 = 11
3+3+4 = 10

The guy couldn’t figure out the answer after knowing their sums. SO IT HAS TO BE either 1+6+6 OR 2+2+9 because they add up to the same number. Otherwise the guy WOULDN’T have needed the last clue! He would have known the answer at this point.

The last clue, ‘My oldest child’s name is Steve’ solves is. We know he has an oldest child. So it MUST be 2, 2, and 9 – because the other answer had a set of twins as the oldest, rather than a single child.