Secret Santas

by Aussie Meyer
Solving Tips

Story

Last year at Brinkley Court, the domestic staff decided to draw names for Christmas presents, so as to save a bit of money and yet still have a goodie to unwrap under the tree. Those involved in the pool included Seppings (butler), Anatole (chef), Mrs. Spinks (housekeeper), Myrtle (chambermaid), and Freddy (chauffeur). The gifts were as follows: a phonograph album of Singing Nuns, a box of Marzipans, a Murder Mystery, woolly underwear, and a toy archery set. These items were wrapped very festively in: shiny silver paper, stripey red paper, comic Santa paper, white tissue paper, and gilded Florentine paper.

Now, as it turned out, there were wheels within wheels, and Dahlia Travers, the lady of the house, had acquired a pen using disappearing ink so that she could write a cheque to a pressing creditor of Milady's Boudoir, that ever-insolvent periodical (being of good Wooster stock, she naturally intended to pay, but she needed a little lead time). This fountain pen somehow got loose in the household, and by chance all 5 of the participants in the Secret Santa drawing wrote their "To & From" tags in disappearing ink. As a result, Christmas morning, no one knew what was meant for whom.

Can you, with the help of the 8 clues given, help determine who bought which present to give to whom, and how it was wrapped?


./Labels/h_To.png ./Labels/h_Gift.png ./Labels/h_Paper.png
./Labels/v_Anatole.png ./Labels/v_Freddy.png ./Labels/v_Mrs._Spinks.png ./Labels/v_Myrtle.png ./Labels/v_Seppings.png ./Labels/v_Archery_set.png ./Labels/v_Marzipans.png ./Labels/v_Murder_Mystery.png ./Labels/v_Singing_Nuns.png ./Labels/v_Woolly_underwear.png ./Labels/v_Comic_Santa.png ./Labels/v_Gilded_Florentine.png ./Labels/v_Shiny_silver.png ./Labels/v_Stripey_red.png ./Labels/v_White_tissue.png
./Labels/v_From.png ./Labels/h_Anatole.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Freddy.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Mrs._Spinks.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Myrtle.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Seppings.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/v_Paper.png ./Labels/h_Comic_Santa.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Gilded_Florentine.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Shiny_silver.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Stripey_red.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_White_tissue.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/v_Gift.png ./Labels/h_Archery_set.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Marzipans.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Murder_Mystery.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Singing_Nuns.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
./Labels/h_Woolly_underwear.png Mark Mark Mark Mark Mark
x o blank
x o blank x o blank x o blank x o blank
x o blank x o blank x o blank x o blank
JavaScript Grid by Scott Noyes

Clues

  1. The Murder Mystery was a gift TO Freddy, the chauffeur.
  2. The present FROM Seppings was lovingly wrapped in the white tissue paper he always kept in his pantry.
  3. The Singing Nuns album was a gift TO the person who always used fancy Florentine paper.
  4. Neither the gift TO or FROM Anatole was wrapped in paper with funny Santas, for he was morbidly afraid of them.
  5. Freddy got something nice for Seppings (not the archery set).
  6. Anatole and Myrtle were courting, and neither one drew the other's name. No one drew the name of the same person who drew their name. No person drew his own name.
  7. The marzipans were wrapped in shiny silver paper.
  8. The chambermaid Myrtle, having a warm heart, got the woolly underwear for someone.



Solving Tips


Use an X when you are sure that two fields do not match. Use a dot when you are sure that two fields do match. Click once to place an X. Click a second time to place a dot. Click a third time to clear the box.

Select marker color by clicking the colored radio buttons. You can use colored marks to indicate which clue provided a value, or to indicate a guess that might not be correct, or just because you like solving puzzles in teal.

Use the "Save" button to save a puzzle in progress. Use the "Load" button to reload the puzzle. This feature uses cookies - fear not, we aren't tracking you or stealing credit card numbers (we couldn't, even if we wanted to.) At the moment, only one puzzle may be saved at a time on each computer (unless using different browsers or accounts). There is no warning if you save over another puzzle, and no undo!

Use the "Current Solution Window" button to parse the grid for your solution. This feature simply looks for dots in the top set of rows and creates a list that you can copy and paste into your email for submission.

If you want to clear the grid and start over, just refresh the page. Note that there is a bug in IE6 (and possibly other browsers), so that if a color other than the default is selected, that color may appear to be selected after the reload, but the actual color used will be the default.

Feature Requests
What would you like to see added to the JavaScript grid? Send me your requests and ideas.

Bug Reports
If you encounter something strange, or a JavaScript error, or some other oddity, let me know!

Scott
snoyes@gmail.com