A Puzzling Holiday Tradition!

At a certain point during my childhood, my dad started to attach a puzzle to the outside of each wrapped Christmas gift for my brother and me. The puzzle on each gift was a hint about what was inside, and we had to guess a box's contents correctly before we could open it.

He did this to slow us down on Christmas morning, which went from being a mindless flurry of shredded wrapping paper to a thoughtful battle of wits. Not only did this practice bring a bit more gratitude and calm to us kids on Christmas morning, it turned out to be incredibly fun.

As my brother and I got older we started to play the game, too, creating puzzle tags for my father's gifts. The whole experience became an arms race of creativity, obscure references, and lateral thinking.

Over the years this tradition became more abstract and now the puzzle itself is the gift.

Santa's Favorite Online Scavenger Hunt Xmas Puzzle is one of the first "standalone" puzzle gifts I created for my dad. I share it now along with best wishes for the end of the year and every hope for positive outcomes in the next.

I hope you and yours find some joy in Santa's Favorite Online Scavenger Hunt Xmas Puzzle!