Perhaps Santa has had a craniotomy, he fell off the roof at a previous child’s house and broke open his head; or perhaps it’s a commentary on how as a culture we’ve lost our minds about Christmas and forgotten the true meaning of ….. NOPE. It’s just another puzzle from this set with a missing piece!
I’m very disappointed in the quality control Ceaco has, or I should say the lack of quality control. This is the third puzzle, that makes 3 out of 8 with missing pieces for me so far. Penny from Puzzle Momma has been assembling her puzzles from this set too, and she’s had 2 puzzles with extra pieces. It’s frustrating, upsetting, and extremely disappointing – Ceaco is definitely on my naughty list!
Santa is cute, reindeer peeking around him, blah blah blah.
This little puzzle leads me to believe that the elves are definitely slacking off. Santa has to break out the paint and finish the toys inside the children’s homes? Awful! Methinks some of the elves aren’t going to be happy about their performance reviews this year. Tsk tsk.
This is another one of those sickly sweet “perfect Christmas” images that I am not a fan of. Roaring fire, perfectly decorated tree, snow falling outside, jolly Santa – ugh. Perhaps I am a Grinch at heart (which must be 2 sizes too small), but these Hallmark perfect images are the reason I don’t care for Christmas puzzles.
So many people only puzzle around the holidays, and there are SO many images like this out there to cater to those people that it’s just too much for me. I prefer Christmas images that are unique, from a different perspective, childlike, or downright quirky. Maybe it’s just the fact that I despise going along with the crowd and have a need to be myself that I don’t like these type of Christmas puzzles. Most people seem to love them, and I see the draw; the artwork is beautiful and it’s a happy holiday scene, but it’s not really what I enjoy in a puzzle. To be clear – there’s nothing wrong with them, or the people who love them; they’re just not for me.
There’s only one more puzzle with this type of artwork left, only one more helping of vegetables to get through before we get to the desserts! The rest of the images are more my speed, and I’m especially looking forward to day 9, that is the image I’ve been looking forward to the most! Stay tuned. 😉
This puzzle surprised me! It’s exactly the kind of Christmas image that I stay pretty far away from, the artwork just isn’t my pile of pieces. Interestingly though, the actual assembly was much more entertaining than anticipated and I found myself quite engaged with it.
My suspicion is that had it been a larger piece count it would driven me crazy. All the falling fuzzy snow, soft outdoor lights, and the typical Coca-Cola-type Santa image would, in a larger puzzle, have definitely brought out the Grinch in me. Luckily I came across this image in only 100 pieces and to my great surprised enjoyed it very much. It’s a Christmas miracle! 😉
This is the halfway mark of the advent calendar, and it isn’t a surprise to me that these little puzzles are delightful to assemble – especially in the midst of the holiday rush. There are places to go and many things to do, and sometimes the only time I touch puzzle pieces is assembling these little images in the morning.
A deceptively simple looking image, but it was full of brush strokes and made for a little more of a challenge than anticipated! I hadn’t even finished my first cup of coffee this morning before I got going on this puzzle, and had to wake myself up a bit. ☕
So far all of these little puzzles have been assembled blind, I put the box away before I pour out the pieces and assemble using only colors and shapes. If I were looking at the image, this one might not have been so challenging first thing in the morning with my bleary eyes and un-sipped coffee. But it’s one of the cute ones, and while it might not normally be my pile of pieces it was enjoyable this morning.
These little one coffee puzzles have been the only puzzling I’ve done since Sunday morning. Today’s the day to turn it around though, I’ve got to get myself back to the board!
There’s so much preparation and stress around this holiday, and I’ve gotten myself wrapped up in it again wanting to make sure my family has a good Christmas – for reasons my regular readers understand. But puzzles help me relax and de-stress, so I need to pull myself up by my fuzzy slipper straps (not wearing boots) and put a puzzle on this board today. Ooh-rah!
Yes, puzzle friends, your eyes are not deceiving you, another puzzle with a missing piece. I am very disappointed and have contacted Ceaco.
I’m not one of those people who thinks a puzzle with a missing piece is the end of the world, and contacts the company to demand a replacement for every puzzle with a missing piece. In fact, the few times I have contacted companies I have refused replacements, my purpose was only to let them know about a manufacturing issue that they needed to address.
For me, once I’ve assembled the puzzle I have no need of a replacement. Even when there are missing pieces I still got enjoyment putting the puzzle together; and I feel that asking for a free puzzle because of a missing piece is ridiculous. There is no way to guarantee that a missing piece is a manufacturing problem or if it’s the result of “user error”. People swear up and down that they have looked “everywhere” and it must be the company’s fault. Sometimes it is, to be sure; but I believe most of the time it is not. (These are my just opinions, and in no way am I passing judgement on anyone else.)
My purpose in contacting Ceaco was to let them know that there does seem to be a manufacturing problem with these puzzles. I have had 2 puzzles with missing pieces out of only 4 that I have assembled, and Penny has had an extra piece in one of her puzzles from the same set. These puzzles were assembled in one sitting, the pieces were dumped out onto a tray, and I am certain the missing ones just weren’t in the bag. It’s been my experience that Ceaco usually does a good job with their special editions, like this one; unfortunately, this advent calendar seems to have issues.
I did not ask for a replacement, because frankly I don’t wish to do these holiday puzzles again after the holidays. They should be made aware of problems though, and I wanted to express my disappointment. I made a special trip to the store for these puzzles, and that’s a big deal for someone with my physical problems. The advent calendar of puzzles made this PADS sufferer very happy and I was so excited to get it and start assembling a puzzle each day. Having missing pieces in 50% of the puzzles I’ve put together so far is quite frustrating, and I felt Ceaco needed to hear about it.
Anyway, that’s about 400 words written about a kids puzzle with a missing piece. Yikes. Sorry for the rant guys, but thanks for listening.
My Jigsaw Journal 