[[!meta title="Carl's Christmas Puzzle Hunt 2015"]]

[[!tag puzzles]]

Welcome to the 2015 edition of Carl's Christmas Puzzle Hunt. If you're
wondering what all of this is about, you can read the [history of my
Christmas puzzles](../).

Since I designed these puzzles for my sons, some of the artwork and
imagery will have more meaning to them than it would to anyone
else. But the puzzles themselves are all designed so that they can be
solved using only general knowledge and logic.

The puzzles this year include word games (anagrams, cryptograms),
logic puzzles (sudoku, star battle, fillomino, yajilin), and other
classic puzzles (riddles, mazes, etc.) as well as a few unique
surprises. Of course, there's also a big meta-puzzle to pull it all
together.

I'm very interested in any feedback you might have, positive or
negative, about puzzles, themes, difficulty, etc. So please share
whatever comments you have. I'm also happy to confirm solutions to any
puzzles in the hunt or to provide additional hints if needed. So feel
free to email me at: [Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org>](mailto:Carl
Worth <cworth@cworth.org>).

## Solvers

The following individuals and teams have provided me with a correct
solution to the entire puzzle hunt:

   * Cameron, Hyrum, Andrew, and Scott Worth: December 2015

   * Jigsaw (Andrew Bradburn): March 2016

   * DelphiRune (Steve Watt and Anita Hollister): July 2016

   * Conundrum (Robert Haight): July 2016

## Errata

The following mistakes managed to creep into the puzzles and have not
yet been corrected.

   * Remarkable Change: One change spans two rows. Take the letter
     from the lower of the two rows.

   * Be Prepared, My Boy!: The words TALKS and ARENA appear
     incidentally in the grid and should be ignored.

   * Olympian Teaser: This puzzle probably deserves some additional
     definitions for the six items/figures you need to determine. So
     use these hints if you are stumped (highlight the hidden text to
     reveal it):

     * <span style="color:white"> His ship shares a name with a 2012 Ben Affleck flick</span>

     * <span style="color:white"> The preferred instrument of Gheorghe Zamfir</span>

     * <span style="color:white"> More properly a "jar", it contained all the evils of the world </span>

     * <span style="color:white"> An image of this goddess was used in Honda motorcycle logos in 1948 (today, only her wings remain) </span>

     * <span style="color:white"> Their love began as a bribe from Aphrodite to win a beauty contest </span>

     * <span style="color:white"> A son of King Telamon, his name today might appear more often under the bathroom sink or in web programming </span>

The puzzle hunt is available in two forms:

## Complete puzzle hunt (30-page PDF)

Download the [Complete Puzzle Hunt](code-2015.pdf).

## Individual Pages

I designed these puzzles for my four sons at Christmastime. When we
placed their gifts under the tree, we didn’t put any names on them,
but instead each gift had one of the 16 rather puzzling tags you can
find below. A correct solution for all of the puzzles will allow the
solver to determine which of my sons should receive each gift. (My
sons are named Cameron, Hyrum, Andrew, and Scott)

(Click on thumbnails for single-page PDF of each puzzle)

### Gift Tags

<a href="code-2015-01.pdf"><img src="code-2015-01.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-02.pdf"><img src="code-2015-02.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-03.pdf"><img src="code-2015-03.png"></a>

### The Ornament Puzzles

<a href="code-2015-04.pdf"><img src="code-2015-04.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-05.pdf"><img src="code-2015-05.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-06.pdf"><img src="code-2015-06.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-07.pdf"><img src="code-2015-07.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-08.pdf"><img src="code-2015-08.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-09.pdf"><img src="code-2015-09.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-10.pdf"><img src="code-2015-10.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-11.pdf"><img src="code-2015-11.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-12.pdf"><img src="code-2015-12.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-13-15.pdf"><img src="code-2015-13.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-16.pdf"><img src="code-2015-16.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-17.pdf"><img src="code-2015-17.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-18.pdf"><img src="code-2015-18.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-19.pdf"><img src="code-2015-19.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-20.pdf"><img src="code-2015-20.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-21.pdf"><img src="code-2015-21.png"></a>
<a href="code-2015-22.pdf"><img src="code-2015-22.png"></a>

### The Final Puzzle

<a href="code-2015-23.pdf"><img src="code-2015-23.png"></a>

### Hints and Credits

CAUTION: There are some (mild) spoilers in this section. Consider
yourself warned.

<a href="code-2015-25-30.pdf"><img src="code-2015-25.png"></a>