Well, it’s here. While the kiddies are still enjoying their Halloween candy and trying to avoid a sugar coma, it has arrived. The actual “holiday” season has now begun. If you’ve been around for a while you may remember that Christmas and winter-themed puzzles aren’t usually my thing. They’re everywhere. Many people love them and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that – it just isn’t for me.

The typical Coca-Cola Santa putting presents under a perfectly decorated tree, the snowy town blanketed in white with lights everywhere, they aren’t images that I enjoy puzzling so I tend to stay away from them if I can. I do enjoy an interesting, different, or funny holiday image, but the traditional just ain’t me.

So many people only puzzle around this time of year, with family or friends; a holiday puzzle for everyone to help with is sometimes tradition. But not here, so you won’t be seeing many (if any) of those here. Plus, I don’t understand how a person enjoys puzzles only one or two months out of the year, how does that work? What kind of whack-a-doo only likes to…… You know what? I’ve said too much.

Never mind. 😉

When we get to December I actually have a special treat this year, two different sets of advent calendars! There will NOT be a repeat of the terrible, awful, no-good, very bad, rotten Ceaco advent calendar of 2019. Both sets of puzzles are made by companies that make excellent, premium quality products and I am actually looking forward to working each little Christmas puzzle. Can you believe it?!

The first set I actually bought myself, it’s by Ravensburger so I couldn’t help but give it a good home; the second set was a gift from Penny, and it’s a Wasgij? advent calendar. Both sets have 24 puzzles, and each one is 54 pieces; they are meant to be opened and assembled every day in December before Christmas. I’ll be doing the puzzles and posting about them the same day, which means most of the puzzles I’ll be doing in November you will not see until January or February!

Because one of the sets is from Wasgij?, that means they are all mystery puzzles and I won’t be showing the completed images. I’ll write up one post about both small puzzles with an image of the Ravensburger, and probably just a couple of paragraphs about the Wasgij?. I don’t ever want to spoil anyone else’s fun by showing a mystery puzzle in it’s entirety, so all you’ll be getting is my comments.

I’ve found that for me the holiday season can be hectic and stressful with many things to do and be done, and oftentimes the only puzzling I was able to do during the day was with my coffee in the morning while I worked on the blog and did a little puzzling. So, during December I may only be assembling and posting the advent puzzles – we’ll have to wait and see if I get bored with only doing very small puzzles for three weeks.

Hopefully I’ll still have time to work on the Golden Age of Disney puzzle and/or others, but at the very least I know I’ll be able to start my days with two excellent quality puzzles – can’t think of a nicer thing to do for myself during the holidays!🎄💚🧩