"May a pax be upon your manger!"; O Little Noun of Bethlehem; Christmas Quiz Mastery; All naughty, none nice; O, Miss Kris Tree; Just a piece in our game just, as served, two became

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah from Joseph Young’s Puzzle –ria! This week’s blog will be a tad less intense and a mite more mellow than usual.

Oh sure, we will still serve up a merry menu of puzzle slices, but some will be ones you may want to share with family members, especially precocious youngsters, if you encounter any leisurely down-time over the holidays.

We baked these puzzles in hopes that they’ll melt in your mouth, not melt down your brain.

But first, here are a few of our favorite Yuletide things, things that lift us up into the spirit of Christmas:

O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”;

The evangelist Luke’s nativity narrative;

Secular carols: “Silver Bells”; “Sleighride”

Sacred carols: “HallalujahChorus”; “Angels We Have Heard on High”; “O Holy Night”;

Spiritual carols: “Mary Had a Baby”; “Mary’s Boy Child”;

And, movies galore:

“Bells of St.Mary’s”; “It’s a Wonderful Life”; “Miracle on 34^th Street” (NatalieWood’s 1947 version); “A Christmas Story” (master storyteller Jean Shepherd’s magna opus); “The Apartment”; “Stalag 17” (kinda hokey but a nice plot); “The Nativity Story” (a nice narrative of what the Nativity might have been like)…

And, our sleeper pick, “We’re No Angels” (1955 version, a bit hokey but great plot and performances by Bogart, Ustinov and Aldo Ray. See screen shots, above)

Now here is this week’s merry menu of pine-fresh Puzzleria! slices. Hop aboard and join us on our Magical Mystical Yuletide Tour, on our SantaNantucket Sleighride to the snowy peaks of Puzzledom:

Menu

Evergreen Slice:

O, Miss Kris Tree…

Miss Kris Tree stands in the family room by the picture window, skirted and all decked out with shiny, sparkly “adornaments,” with a ribbony rainbow of gaily wrapped presents at her feet… er, her foot. Also at her foot are her pet shrubs, Puppytree and Kittentree. Solve the following riddles regarding Miss Kris Tree:

What does Miss Kris Tree do when people applaud her?

After a few too many Christmas cookies, where does she keep her “spare tire”?

What does she prefer having her Christmas day turkey dinner with?

How does Miss Kris Tree describe someone who is in a jittery state of anticipation?

What does Miss Kris put scoops of ice cream into?

When Kris wears a hooded parka how does she accessorize it?

What nickname does Miss Kris Tree use when referring to Hollywood?

Besides her hooded parka, what does Miss Kris Tree wear to keep warm?

What type of salad dressing does Miss Kris Tree pour onto her chef salad?

What are her two favorite math subjects at school?

What does Miss Kris tell nervous strangers about her pet puppy, “Puppytree”?

What does Puppytree say when he observes a particularly well-decorated limb of his mistress, Miss Kris?

What does Miss Kris Tree’s pet kitten, “Kittentree” call the spherical ornaments worn by her mistress?

What does a sun-deprived Miss Kris Tree apply to her trunk when she notices it is becoming a bit too “birchbarkish”?

What is Miss Kris Tree’s favorite soft drink/soda?

Who is Miss Kris Tree’s favorite pro golfer?

What is her favorite Tom Hanks movie?

When in an alliterative mood, who is her favorite New Jersey rock star?

Scrabbley Slice:

Christmas Quiz Mastery

Using 18 Scrabble tiles, place the words “Christmas,” “Quiz” and “Mastery” simultaneously on a standard Scrabble board so that the three words are connected and score the maximum point total possible.

Note #1: If you use the starred center square, treat it as a double-word score.
Note #2: Words may be “stacked” one atop another horizontally, or set adjacent to one another vertically, but only if all the two-letter words formed are official Scrabble words, in either the TWL or SOWPODS lists. For example, “tq,” “eu” and “yz” are not official Scrabble words. 

Yule Tied In a Bow Slice:

All naughty, none nice

Santa is making a list (below) and checking it for consistencies. The words and phrases in his list all have something in common. All are “naughty.” None are nice. Exactly what is it they have in common that makes them “naughty?”

Nativity; Christmas Eve; Away in a manger; Our Savior is born; The Gift of the Magi; Wise men; We three kings of Orient are bearing gifts, we traverse afar; Shepherds; Cherubim; Seraphim; Saint Nick; Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer; Joy; Christmas Time Is Here; I’m dreaming of a white Christmas; Fruitcake; Quince or mincemeat pies; Christmas quizzes; Frosty the Snowman; Happy Xmas (War Is Over); Creche scenes; Red and green decorations; A star set atop the evergreen tree; Frosted cookies; Candy canes; Popcorn strings; Bright, shiny ornaments; Do They Know It’s Christmas?; Tiny Tim; Ebenezer Scrooge; the Grinch; Eggnog; Nutmeg; Ribbons, bows and wrapping paper covering boxed-up presents; Ave Maria; Up On The Housetop; Chestnuts roasting on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose; Santa’s workshop; Earth Today Rejoices; the Nutcracker Suite; The Chipmunk Song; O Tannenbaum; Poinsettias; Yorkshire pudding; Advent wreaths; Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree... but not that other “Rock Around...” song that was a smash hit in the same decade; A partridge in a pear tree; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care; Do You Hear What I Hear?; December twenty-fifth... or twenty-five... or twenty-five-or-six to four (or three-thirty-five-or-four) if you’re in Chicago; I Saw Three Ships; Unto Us A Boy Is Born; Peace on Earth;  “Go near, see him, my pax”; Frankincense, myrrh... and whatever that third gift was that the other magus (what was his name? Gaspar? Caspar?) brought to Jesus... I can never quite remember the type of treasure he had borne and bestowed on the newborn babe... wait, now it is somewhat coming back to me... and so, on second thought, maybe not, never mind; Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice;

 

Hint: There is only one acceptable answer, and it is a short one. But the short answer (ironically, like O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”) is nice, not naughty, so Santa would have to keep it off his above list. (The title of this slice, “All naughty, none nice,” is similarly ironic.)

Easy As Shepherd’s Pie Slice:

O Little Noun of Bethlehem

Think of a singular noun associated with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Remove three of its letters and add a common personal pronoun to the end to form a plural noun associated with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. 

Replace the pronoun you added with a different personal pronoun to create the singular form of the plural noun you previously created.

What are these three nouns?

 Wise Women Seek Him Still Slice:

“May a pax be upon your manger!”

Wise men from the East followed the Star of Bethlehem to the site of Christ’s Nativity. But let’s say a trio of wise women from the West also paid a Nativity visit – Germanic wise women, three proto-English-speaking, not-so-obtuse Angles, Saxons or Jutes who picked up a smattering of Latin along the way on their eastward trek toward Bethlehem.

Let’s also say that one of the women, upon beholding the babe in the manger, in a hybrid “Latinglish” tongue suggests to her companions: 

“Go near, see him, my pax.”

Rearrange the letters of those six words to form four words – three of them plural – that often appear in crèche scenes. What are they?

Plurality Slice:

Just a piece in our game... 

just, as served, two became

Take a singular word that can be a synonym for “justice of the peace.” Change the last letter to a different letter and divide the result to form two plural words. What are they?

 

Every Friday at Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! we publish a new menu of fresh word puzzles, number puzzles, logic puzzles, puzzles of all varieties and flavors. We cater to cravers of scrumptious puzzles!

Our master chef, Grecian gourmet puzzle-creator Lego Lambda, blends and bakes up mysterious (and sometimes questionable) toppings and spices (such as alphabet soup, Mobius bacon strips, diced snake eyes, cubed radishes, “hominym” grits, anagraham crackers, rhyme thyme and sage sprinklings.)

Please post your comments below. Feel free also to post clever and subtle hints that do not give the puzzle answers away. Please wait until after 3 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesdays to post your answers and explain your hints about the puzzles. We serve up at least one fresh puzzle every Friday.

We invite you to make it a habit to “Meet at Joe’s!” If you enjoy our weekly puzzle party, please tell your friends about Joseph Young’s Puzzle -ria! Thank you.