Christmas Spirit

The year’s end is always filled with mixed emotions, generally dominated by good will, cheer, and hope for the new year ahead. The winter holidays are drawing to a close and it’s time to reflect on the past year, those good times and bad, what we accomplished and what we can try again. It’s an opportunity to give yourself, and those around you, some grace, and remember we are human, and all only human.

I’m feeling lucky and grateful for a lovely gift, given in the spirit of the holidays, and the spirit of friendship extended to all within this fascinating and warm community of puzzle enthusiasts. We have an annual tradition of global gift exchange, a “secret santa” sent all around the world to hundreds of participants. Some who participate are designers themselves, and take the opportunity to create a unique and novel gift for their secret recipient. So it was with Dr. Maarten Haspeslagh, a Belgian veterinarian who this past year created “Mail Call!”, a much celebrated sequential discovery adventure puzzle that paid homage to the joy that fans of this hobby feel when receiving something new.

Maarten, who enjoys when a puzzle tells a story, developed a new vignette that is simply perfect for the Christmas holiday. The impetus was the annual international gift exchange, so he only made a few, with one for his exchange recipient, and a few for friends. Lucky for me, and all of you now, I can share some details about it. The story unfolds by a cozy fireplace and hearth, complete with a little chimney. The fireplace is empty, as is the mantle. Some preparations are clearly in order to set the scene properly and welcome the Christmas Spirit! Fortunately, the scene arrives with a message, a clever poem that sets the stage and describes the multiple objectives required to complete the challenge.

On this cold and eerie night,
Let’s fill the room with warmth and light.
The season calls for a festive spark,
To banish the chill and brighten the dark.

First strike a match, let flames inspire,
Gather close, and light a fire.
Watch it crackle, golden, bright,
A beacon of hope through the winter’s night.

Then hang a stocking, white and red,
A festive sign as dreams are spread.
Perhaps some treats, a small surprise,
Await the morning with twinkling eyes.

Now one more thing is left to do,
A guiding light is asked of you.
For three wise magi seek their way,
Through the night to the break of day.

This Christmas Eve, these tasks you’ll do,
To share the spirit, warm and true.
For those in need, for those alone,
Together we’ll make this world their home.

Maarten recounts the tale of his wonderful creation. “As you know the Mechanical Puzzle Discord organizes a Secret Santa event every year, where people all over the world exchange puzzle surprises with each other. While it is perfectly fine to buy an existing puzzle for your Santee, people sometimes go the extra mile and try to make something new. This has led to the birth of some puzzles that have since risen to cult status, such as Pooplock or The Snowman Box. While I knew I wanted to join the Secret Santa event again this year, it took me long enough to decide what I was going to gift. For the longest time I dwelled on making a Christmas-themed version of MailCall!, but I was afraid that my Santee would already have it (which turned out to be true, although I didn't know at the time). I pondered on it for quite a while and took some notes on the theme I wanted the puzzle to have, without really achieving anything specific that I could use. In this way, developing Christmas Spirit (the name came later) was quite the opposite of MailCall!. For MailCall! I started from the mechanics: I had some cool ideas for mechanisms and only later they were blended together in the form factor of a box. For Christmas Spirit, the theme of the puzzle came first, without having thought of mechanisms yet.

As you may remember from our previous interactions, I suffer from severe insomnia. While my disease (I'm not sure it is officially recognized as a disease, but that's definitely how it feels to me) is mostly under control now, every now and then I still have episodes of a few nights in a row that I don't sleep. It was during one of those nights at the beginning of November, that the puzzle took shape in my head. While lying in bed and staring at the inside of my eyelids, I worked out the theme and the story I wanted the puzzle to tell, and invented the mechanisms to achieve what I wanted to happen. The next morning during breakfast, I took my black notebook and started sketching and writing my ideas down. The following evenings and weekends were spent sitting behind my computer to design a first prototype in CAD. Thanks to what I had learned when designing MailCall!, I found that the CAD process was far more efficient this time over: I made fewer mistakes, and the mistakes that I made were easier to solve because of the way I had designed things. This resulted in a first prototype that was more or less functional, and only a few kinks needed to be ironed out, and a final step added (for which I had to step out of my comfort zone again, and take a deep dive in advanced geometry). The second prototype was fully functional and no more changes needed to be made. To build a part of this puzzle, a very specific talent was also needed. Unfortunately I did not have this talent myself, but I happen to live with my NPSO who is very talented in that specific department, and she was willing to help.

Chistmas Spirit puzzle first goal surprise mechanism - SPOILER!

While Christmas Spirit is also an SD, it is totally different from MailCall!. It is shorter and, in my opinion, far easier. I think that one can compare it to the puzzles created by the Karakuri Creation Group: the story takes the central stage, and the puzzle is only there to tell the story in an interesting way. It does a few neat things, but I doubt that a seasoned puzzler like yourself will encounter many walls during solving, and the solve will be much shorter compared to MailCall!. Nevertheless, I for one love how it looks, and I'm very fond of the story it is telling.”

It can be challenging to assess the difficulty of a puzzle you have designed yourself, because you know all the secrets already. Christmas Spirit is wonderfully fun and has a perfect amount of difficulty. There is plenty to discover, many secrets to reveal, and many steps to achieve. You can quickly understand the various things you need to accomplish, but each step takes some time to puzzle out. One step in particular is very tricky and stumped me for some time! The experience is much more involved than a Karakuri puzzle, and strikes a perfect balance for me personally. I like puzzles that I can solve! As you progress you are rewarded with lovely components that complete the tableau. One step is revealed in an amazingly dramatic way that is really joyful. At another, you find the cutest little item that, as Maarten mentions, was hand made by his SO Lisa. Just when you think you have completed it, there is one final challenge that will take some patience, some understanding, a little dexterity, and a greater appreciation of the care that went into each design step of this experience. It’s simply fantastic! Thank you Maarten!

Chimney Sweep cocktail — Chimney Sweep by Mark Adams

Here’s an appropriately themed cocktail to toast with while sitting snug and cozy by the fireside. The creator is another inventive artist who busies himself in his spare time with making pretty cocktail pictures and sharing them on social media under the apropos handle, “artistwithacocktail”. Mark Adams is a painter and portraiture artist from Maryland with a long and successful career. He is also an excellent photographer and adept at the use of photoshop, which he uses to great effect to enhance his themes. He loves to make cocktails, and has a penchant for strong and bitter flavors. What a guy!

Mark is also the spitting image of Santa Claus, a coincidence he encourages and indulges each year with a lengthy seasonal homage to the Christmas spirit, which he documents in photographs with every manner of Christmas themed cocktails. This one, from 2021, which includes Fee Brother’s chocolate bitters and is featured on their website (I used their Black Walnut bitters, another decadent delight this time of year), caught my fancy for both its relevance to the Christmas Spirit puzzle and its ingredients. The cocktail is a delightfully tasty Boulevardier, with the added touch of smoke from peaty scotch. Mark muses, “I remember using High West Campfire Whiskey, a blend of rye, bourbon and blended scotch. That was gilding the lily since you get the smoke and peat from the scotch element. A good spicy rye like Rittenhouse bottled-in-bond or if you are flush, Basel Hayden’s Dark Rye would be great in this cocktail. Spicy, smokey, slightly sweet, and bitter with a chocolate finish, this is a great holiday cocktail.” Santa never had it so good! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Christmas Spirit puzzle and Chimney Sweep cocktail — spirits of the season

Chimney Sweep by Mark Adams

1 oz rye

1 oz sweet vermouth

1 oz Cynar

¼ oz smokey peaty scotch

2 dashes chocolate bitters

Stir ingredients with ice and strain into a favorite glass with a large cube. Garnish with a Luxardo cherry or citrus wheel.

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