Daily Info's Advent Calendar 2018

Christmas Day: Merry Christmas!

Whether your day involves gluhwein, boar's heads, angelic choirs or any other weird and wonderful traditions, we sincerely hope it is filled with joy.

We've collected all of our advent calendar puzzles below in case you need a bit of distraction (or another outlet for family competitiveness!), and you can also listen to our carols through our Youtube channel. If you are still to make your dinner plans, our Christmas page has some handy information about some big community get-togethers.

Links to this year's puzzles if you haven't already had a look!

Christmas Carol anagrams
Christmassy Connections
A seasonal riddle
Puzzling places
Punny songs
More tricky connections
Oxfordian anagrams

Last year's Advent Calendar puzzles

Modern hieroglyphics?

Wintery Word Ladders

Invented by Oxford's own Lewis Carroll on Christmas Day in 1877, in order to get from the start word to the final word one must progressively change one letter on each line.
E.G. GOLD
HOLD
HOLE
HOME

Can you solve these festive word ladders?

Mixing it up

Slide into Christmas
Remember those fiddly puzzles from your childhood where you had to slide parts of the picture around until, elated, the completed image appeared before your eyes?
How to play: Click a moveable square to move it to the empty space, and try to complete the image in the fewest possible moves!

(Thanks to Cédric Blondeau for his sliding puzzle library - Merry Christmas, Cédric!)

The 12 d of c (12 days of Christmas!)
For this puzzle, all you need to do is work out the well-known phrase or fact from the first letter of each word. Not as straightforward as it sounds!

A P is W 1000 W
26 L in the A
2 4 6 8 W D W A
29 D in F (in a L Y)
7 B F 7 B
20,000 L U the S
12 S of the Z
24 C = P G
38 P by S
A S in T S 9

Matchsticks made in Heaven

1. Christmas Tree
Can you move three matches to end up with 4 equilateral triangles? They aren't necessarily all the same size.
Can you move three matches to end up with 5 equilateral triangles, all the same size? You have to think right out of the matchbox for this one.

2. 5 Boxes
Can you move two matches to make four boxes? (No loose ends, no overlapping.)

3. Acre
Two argumentative brothers inherit a field and 8 fence panels. Can you place 8 matches to divide this field exactly in half, so that each half is the same shape?

4. Cocktail
Here's a cocktail with an umbrella in it. Can you move two matches to recreate the cocktail with the umbrella outside it?

5. Turna Fish
Here's a fish swimming one way. Can you move three matches to make the same fish swim the other way?

6. Wigwam
Can you move three matches to create three triangles of the same size touching corner to corner?

7. Equation
Here's an equation which is not correct. Can you move 1, 2, or 3 matches to make correct equations? There are several answers when you move just one match.

Can you spot the 10 differences between these two images?

Can you work out the identities of these festive film characters?

1. BETH DUDE FLY (3)
2. DEAD ROB CYCLONE (2)
3. JINGLE CONK TALKS (2)
4. RHYME LIAR (2)
5. CRONE BREEZES EGO (2)
6. CATS POEMS FORTHRIGHTNESS (4)
7. WALRUS SNAKE (2)
8. NO JAM CLENCH (2)
9. UNHOLY COW ID (3)
10. STOP PET PREP (2)
Bonus: HUNGER BRAS (2)

Cross-jig-word-saw

This is a hybrid puzzle (as you might have guessed from the name!) where you need to transfer the sections on the right to the grid on the left, to make a completed crossword.

The grid is symmetrical horizontally and vertically. None of the pieces need to be rotated. Here are the across clues to help you:
1. Questioning
2. Region; Eager
3. Pitch
4. Hitch a ride on
5. Finished
6. Fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes
7. Rip; Centre
8. Car model with a rear door that lifts up

All the trimmings
Can you identify these things that might be found on the Christmas Dinner table?

This last one is hard, since the item it's depicting is a bit obscure. It's a wine...

Characterful Connections

Being Elizabeth
Watching the Queen's speech today? Here's a quiz about Liz: people who have played Queen Elizabeth I or II on screen! In the marked downward squares you'll find another name. Why has this person been singled out?

Clues:
1. This Australian has also played Bob Dylan and a Royal Elf
2. This actor played QEI in Sally Potter's adaptation of Virginia Woolf's gender-swapping classic, Orlando, alongside Tilda Swinton in the title role
3. This actor played our current monarch, in The Crown
4. Better known as Queen Victoria, this actor has also looked unamused as Colin Firth failed to lay his cloak over a puddle for her
5. The Queen's stunt double, at least for the opening of the London 2012 Olympics
6. How the former Commonwealth loves to laugh at the monarchy! This actor has kept the US in stitches with a series of Saturday Night Live sketches.
7. This poor Queenie had a lot of cunning plans to contend with, but fortunately had the heart and stomach of a concrete elephant
8. This actor has been in many films but always as Her Majesty, appearing with the likes of Leslie Nielsen in Police Squad, and Austin Powers
9. This member of a famous acting dynasty stars in a political thriller about how Rhys Ifans really wrote Shakespeare's plays
10. From 1971 came a severe portrayal of Elizabeth R, with painstakingly recreated dresses, by an actor who later became an MP. Perhaps 16th century politics are good practice for 20th century ones.
11. A light-hearted portayal of the young QEII, breaking her curfew on VE Day, was offered by this Canadian, in a film with a surprisingly high rating on Rotten Tomatoes, who thought it slight but charming

The Dictionary Game
This is a lovely game, best played with two or more people and a real physical dictionary, by a roaring fire with some hot-buttered crumpets. So imagine we have piped woodsmoke and crumpet aromas down your Smellovision™ screen, and sit back for our digital version.

The idea is to guess a word chosen by the other player, who has the dictionary. They will tell you the definition of the previous word, and the definition of the word that follows. (With real people, they can give the definition of the middle word as a clue, but we don't have that luxury.) It's important to pick words that aren't too related, but which are all fairly well-known, avoiding technical words for different types of geological rock formation and the like.

So for example, we might have:
Word before: a naive person, especially a new recruit in the US army
Word after: fairly green
What's the word in the middle?

The word after sounds like it might be GREENISH, so although there are a number of synonyms for a naive person, the one we want is probably GREENHORN. That means the word in the middle must begin somewhere between GREENHO - GREENI.
The common word between those is GREENHOUSE.

Your turn! (Answers at the bottom if you need them.)

1. Word before: sensational theatre with exaggerated characters and emotions
Word after: large fruit of the gourd family, with very sweet flesh and lots of seeds, often eaten as a dessert

2. Word before: happy, elated
Word after: a lever that can be used to control a computer, especially for gaming, or an aircraft

3. Word before: to search the internet for two legitimate words and no quotes, and get just one result in return
Word after: 10 to the power 100, or 1 with 100 noughts after it

4. Word before: jokey, fond of being humorous of playful
Word after: a young kangaroo

5. Word before: animal excrement
Word after: related to the Isle of Man, a type of cat

6. Word before: a tray, typically made of silver, such as a butler might use to bring in a vast pile of Ferrero Rocher
Word after: a volley of simultaneous shots from artillery or other guns in battle

7. Word before: shadow or shade, especially the fully shaded area of the earth or moon during a total eclipse
Word after: a portable device used to protect the user from the rain

Merry Music Mashup
Whoops, something's gone wrong with these Christmas classics! Can you identify these seven songs?

Cheery Cryptograms
Fancy cracking our cryptic carol-themed cryptograms? Here's an example to help you get to grips with ciphers.

Give these ones a go:

Even more connections

Wordwatching Birdsearch

Can you find the following words, all related to seasonal flora and fauna?
3 letters:
FIR, IVY
4 letters:
BLUE, CONE, DOVE, LEAF, PEAR, PINE, TREE, WREN
5 letters:
BERRY, CAMEL, GEESE, HOLLY, ROBIN, SHEEP
6 letters:
CACTUS, DONKEY, NEEDLE, NORWAY, SPRUCE, TURTLE, WREATH
8 letters:
NORDMANN, REINDEER
9 letters:
PARTRIDGE, LODGEPOLE, MISTLETOE
10 letters: POINSETTIA

Quizmas

1. Which brands produce the following festive concoctions:
a) Clementine Latte
b) Eggnog Latte
c) Gingerbread Latte
d) Festive Flat White (with Mince Pie syrup)

2. What was the traditional Christmas meal in England before turkey took over?
a) A joint of beef with horseradish
b) A partridge with pear
c) A pig's head with mustard

3. Who holds the record for most Christmas number 1 singles?
a) Cliff Richard
b) The Beatles
c) Michael Jackson

4. What food is technically illegal to eat on Christmas day thanks to a law passed by Oliver Cromwell which was never rescinded?
a) Chocolate log
b) Figgy Pudding
c) Mince pies

5. Match these statistics (13% / 27% / 57%) with the facts:
a) % adults in the UK would sacrifice seeing family on Christmas day if it meant they could spend more time on Facebook
b) % of families watch the Queen's Speech
c) % of families always attend church on Christmas Day

6. In Japan, what is the most popular Christmas dinner?
a) Turkey Roast
b) McDonalds
c) KFC

7. How many calories does the average Brit consume on Christmas day?
a) 4,550
b) 8,500
c) 7,000

8. When meeting the demonic folklore beast Krampus, what is it customary to offer him?
a) Your left shoe
b) Schnapps
c) A lump of coal

Giving something back
If you've enjoyed all of this fun, festive nonsense, why not spread the festive cheer a little further with our charitable suggestion of the day:

Welcome to Daily Info’s 2024 Advent Calendar – 24 days of events to celebrate the festive period and get ready to ring in the New Year!

This year's calendar offers a mix of Christmas activities - pantos, comedy shows, carol concerts etc, taking in traditions in Oxford and the wider area, as well as free diversions in December and some of the best happenings to book ahead for in 2025.

Back to calendar

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