holidaypuzzle

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2024-25 Puzzle

A New Year's Anagram countdown:

(10) Skis (9) Risque meats (8) Drab poll (7) An eye swerve (6) Loan slob (5) Outlier sons (4) Beetle car (3) Fork wires (2) Amp change (1) Nasally nudge

Give them a try, then see our solutions.

(10) Skis = kiss (9) Risque meats = Times Square (8) Drab poll = ball drop (7) An eye swerve = New Year's Eve (6) Loan slob = balloons (5) Outlier sons = resolutions (4) Beetle car = celebrate (3) Fork wires = fireworks (2) Amp change = champagne (1) Nasally nudge = Auld Lang Syne

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2023-24 Puzzle

How old is Taylor?

Taylor is 1/5 as old as her mother. Her mother's age, when lessened by 1, can be divided evenly by 2, 3, 4, 6, and 8. Her mother's age, when not lessened by 1, can be divided evenly by 5. How old is Taylor?

If Travis is twice as old as Taylor was when Travis was as old as Taylor is now, and Travis is 32, how old is Taylor?

See our solutions here.

Solutions:

Taylor is 5 in this one.

From Travis' age now, 32, we know that n years ago, Taylor was 16. At that time, Travis was 32-n which we're told is Taylor's age now, 16+n. So n=8 and Taylor is 16+n=24.

These were inspired by puzzles in Joseph Leeming's book, Fabulous Fun with Puzzles.

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2022-23 Puzzle

The 7-Eleven: Knox goes to a 7-Eleven to do his holiday shopping and buys four items.  

"That's $7.11," remarks the cashier.

"How funny," replies Knox.

"Yes," says the cashier, "all I did was multiply the prices of the four items together."

"Aren't you supposed to add the prices together?" asked Knox.

"That's fine with me, when you add them the total is exactly the same," replied the cashier.

What were the prices of the items?

A small hint: Work in cents instead of dollars.

A bigger hint: One of the items costs $3.16.

See our solution here.

They cost $1.20, $1.25, $1.50, and $3.16.

Jay’s method was to find the prime factors of 711,000,000 (they’re 2, 3, 5 and 79), and then play with powers until it works out.

How did you solve it?

This puzzle was shamelessly stolen from Alex Bellos’ wonderful book, Can You Solve my Problems?

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2021-22 Puzzle

Help us find the shortest path from California to Texas!  You can only move along vertical and horizontal lines (no diagonals).  The number in each square is the number of squares you must move next in one direction.  You can only change direction at each stop.  Give it a try, then go below to check your answer.

If you’re stuck, a hint is to start at Texas and work backwards.

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2020-21 Puzzle

If you're stuck and want a hint, think about adding a number's digits, like 17 makes 1+7=8.  For the answer, go here.

The missing number is 12.  The rule that works is adding the two numbers' digits, so 72 and 99 make 7+2+9+9=27, etc.

This puzzle was shamelessly stolen from Alex Bellos’ nice puzzle book, Can You Solve my Problems?

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2019-20 Puzzle

The New Year's frame-up puzzle: A New Year's toast is hidden in this letter frame. See if you can read it. Begin at one of the letters, reading every other letter, and go twice around the frame.  Go here for the answer.

Starting with the C on the left, "Celebrate what you want to see more of."

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2018-19 Puzzle

Date Jam: Using only the digits 2, 0, 1 and 9, create expressions that equal all of the numbers from 0 to 12. Each expression must include each of these digits once and only once, and can include any of the arithmetical symbols +, –, x, ÷, and parentheses.  We'll start you off: 0 x (2 + 1 + 9) = 0, and 2 – 1 + (0 x 9) = 1. One possible solution is here, plus a harder puzzle if you finished too quickly.

Here’s one possible Date Jam solution: 0 x (2 + 1 + 9) = 0 2 – 1 + (0 x 9) = 1 2 + 0 x (1 + 9) = 2 1 + 2 + (0 x 9) = 3 ((9 - 1) ÷ 2) + 0 = 4 ((9 + 1) ÷ 2) + 0 = 5 9 - (1 + 2) + 0 = 6 9 - 2 + (0 x 1) = 7 9 - 1 + (0 x 2) = 8 9 + 0 x (1 + 2) = 9 1 + 9 + (0 x 2) = 10 2 + 9 - (0 x 1) = 11 2 + 0 + 1 + 9 = 12

For something more involved, try...

The Countdown Conundrum: Fill the blanks in the following equation, so that it makes arithmetical sense:

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1 =  2019

You are allowed to use any of the basic mathematical operations, +, –, x, ÷, and as many parentheses as you like. An answer might look something like (10 – 9 + 8) x (7 – 6 – 5)/(4 + 3 + 2 + 1) = 2019, but not this one since the equation is incorrect.  One possible solution is further below.

Both of these puzzles were shamelessly stolen from Alex Bellos’ Guardian Puzzle column.

A solution: (((10 x 9 x 8 x 7) ÷ (6 x 5)) x 4 x 3) + 2 + 1 = 2019

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2017-18 Puzzle

The Holiday Strawberry Pie Mystery: 1,000 pounds of strawberries are loaded in a truck, headed to Manhattan Beach for Layla's holiday pies.  At the beginning of the journey the strawberries are 99% water but by the time they reach Manhattan Beach, because of evaporation, they are 98% water.  How much do the strawberries weigh at the end of the journey?  Hint: It may be less than you think -- certainly less than 990 pounds! 

Click here for our solution.

Answer: 500 pounds.  We know initially there are 10 pounds of “non-water stuff,” which are still there at the end of the journey.  But at the end these 10 pounds are now 2% of the total, and 10 is 2% of 500 (since .02*x = 10 means x=500).

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2016-17 Puzzle

Put a positive number in each light. Each number in the top row is a single digit. Each number not in the top row is the sum of the numbers in the 2 lights just above it.  The 2 red lights contain the same number, as do the 2 yellow lights, and the 2 green lights, but there are no other duplicate numbers.

Go here for the solution.

Shamelessly borrowed from Erich Freidman’s puzzle collection.

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2015-16 Puzzle

Fill in the green circles so that each of the digits 1-9 are used once and the equation is true.

Here’s a solution.

Inspired by one of Erich Freidman’s many wonderful puzzles. 

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2014-15 Puzzle

The Number Wreath: Write each of the numbers 1 through 5 in one (and only one) of the circles below in such a way that, if a circle contains the number x, then the circle that is x steps clockwise from it also has a number in it, and the circle x steps counterclockwise from it also has a number in it.  Here's a solution.

Borrowed from Erich Freidman's wonderful trove of puzzles.

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2013-14 Puzzle

Our picture is in the Munich subway on Oktoberfest Eve.

Now on to the puzzle: Make all the words you can from these letters, always using the central letter, and excluding capitalized words.  Answers must be English words found in some reputable dictionary (sorry, Dad).  Below are the words we found (43 total), with a few definitions from Merriam-Webster for the skeptics. Did you find others? Add them in our comment box or email us and we will add em to this list!

en (the width of a piece of type half the width of an em — just don’t ask us what an em is) re (the second note of a musical scale) we ye are awe aye ear era ere ewe eye nae (no; not) nee new rye wee wen yea yen yew aery (ethereal; aerial) anew earn eery ewer near wane ware wean wear ween weer were wren year newer ranee (the wife of a rajah) renew weary weeny yearn yawner

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2012-13 Puzzle

Fill the blank squares so that each row and column contains all the letters G, I, F, T, and S. Use the symbols, which tell you if a letter in the square comes after (>) or before (<) the letter next to it in the alphabet (that is, F < G < I < S < T).