please empty your brain below
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Have to say (and is it sad to do so?) that for me it is when the big department stores open their Christmas departments. Probably equally sad, I find the run up to Christmas more enjoyable than the day itself. I suppose at the back of my mind is that there are a couple of grey dark months ahead...
Peter Cope | 26.11.25 - 8:28 a.m. | #
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Solved the puzzle, I assume you don’t want answer spoilers in the comments?
Andrew Marsden | Homepage | 26.11.25 - 8:29 a.m. | #
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There are so many solutions I haven't banned spoilers. But just one each thanks.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 26.11.25 - 8:30 a.m. | #
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418 + 5907 =6,325
Hev | 26.11.25 - 8:30 a.m. | #
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I got 935 + 1806 = 2741
Andrew Marsden | Homepage | 26.11.25 - 8:36 a.m. | #
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Is the mathematics puzzle a creme egg challenge?
(All the solutions before a specific time today)
MilesT | 26.11.25 - 9:00 a.m. | #
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Whenever the pub put the decorations up.
Don't forget the Orthodox Christians, for them it's January 7th 2026.
Still Anon | 26.11.25 - 9:16 a.m. | #
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the religious festival starts on 25 Dec and lasts for twelve days.
more significantly, the solstice is on 21 Dec this year. we can start getting excited about that pretty soon.
Peter T | 26.11.25 - 9:30 a.m. | #
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Mid-August for the QVC shopping channel (seriously!)
Richard | 26.11.25 - 9:41 a.m. | #
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'When mince pies appear in the shops' - local shop to me had them the first week of September. Is that a record for earliest mince pie sighting?
Simon | 26.11.25 - 9:45 a.m. | #
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The religious festival, liturgically speaking, starts at sunset on December 24th and lasts for 12 days to sunset on January 5th.
Midnight mass is a weird one, using Christmas Day, rather than Christmas Eve, liturgy, despite the latter existing for that first part of Christmas on the 24th. Even in churches that make a big deal of the midnight bit (which, in my experience, is mostly so that 'born this happy morning' can be sung with an am on the 12-hour clock) 90% of the service takes place before midnight. The Vatican has been doing its 'midnight mass' earlier and earlier, and with a 1930 start these last few years, finishing well before midnight!
Advent starts at sunset this coming Saturday.
Si | 26.11.25 - 10:20 a.m. | #
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For the Orthodox Christians it's December 25th, just (for those Orthodox Christians who celebrate on Gregorian Jan 7th - which isn't all, several branches use the Gregorian calendar as their liturgical one*) in the Julian Calendar.
*perhaps most notably the Ukrainian Orthodox church which changed a couple of years ago.
Si | 26.11.25 - 10:26 a.m. | #
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You need to add when the original Coca Cola Christmas TV advert aired (Holidays Are Coming). Not the so-called 'modern' AI-generated rubbish they release...
teg | Homepage | 26.11.25 - 11:14 a.m. | #
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The Greeks that I know its January, for many Russians its January, Ukraine did a Henry VIII, took over the property and set up their own Orthodox church which uses 25th December, so it depends which side of the front line you're on.
Still Anon | 26.11.25 - 11:22 a.m. | #
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My mind turns to gift buying and holiday preparation around now as a group I belong to has its last meet and Festive Meal on the last weekend of November.
Everything needs to be done and dusted by the Solstice as I start my annual 12 days hibernation from the world on the day!
Cornish Cockney | 26.11.25 - 11:27 a.m. | #
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All Orthodox Churches still celebrate Christmas Day on December 25th - just that for some of them that day takes place on what is commonly known as January 7th. It's not a different date, but a different calendar.
A lot of Orthodox churches, including most Greek Orthodox Churches (just the monks on Mount Atmos, and the mostly-Arab Patriarchate of Jerusalem don't), use the Revised Julian calendar created just over 100 years ago. On that calendar December 25th currently occurs at the same time as December 25th does on the Gregorian calendar.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church (which was granted restored self-governorship by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 2019 - very different to setting up their own church, or taking over the property) didn't change the date of their Christmas, just changed what calendar they use for liturgical purposes to Revised Julian in 2023 (previously they allowed both Julian and Revised Julian).
All the Greek/Cypriot Orthodox cathedrals in the UK are part of Churches that adopted the Revised Julian Calendar in 1924, and so their Christmas Day on Revised Julian December 25th is on Gregorian December 25th until the 2700s. So I don't know why the Greeks you know celebrate Christmas at a different time to almost the other Greeks!
Si | 26.11.25 - 2:44 p.m. | #
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Liturgically speaking, Christmas begins with First Vespers (aka Evensong in Anglican circles) on Christmas Eve.
Tim W. | 26.11.25 - 7:30 p.m. | #
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A disappointing lack of puzzle solutions today - a 10 minute burst and then nothing.
Also 563+1908=2471
Also 476+1905=2381
Also...
diamond geezer | Homepage | 26.11.25 - 11:55 p.m. | #
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A lot of false starts but got 968 + 1503 = 2471.
Ian | 27.11.25 - 3:23 a.m. | #
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One gets the feeling that Christmas is close when the TV magazines start advancing their publication days... (Eg, Radio Times for w/c 6th December is out this Saturday!)
Top Deck | Homepage | 27.11.25 - 4:14 p.m. | #
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I struggled with the puzzle for ages on Wednesday. Although I have now solved it (I think) 948 + 1703 = 2651, I was hoping to calculate how many solutions there are, but gave up once I'd found four equations A = 1+C, X = S+1, E + W >10 and I + N>10 so there are a lot! The two latter conditions also impose bounds on the value of S and M, but I can't find the exact number of solutions before it gets messy.
WoodfordWanderer | 28.11.25 - 10:56 a.m. | #
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