Puzzle Description:

12 days of Christmas. 78 gifts. But you don't have to count them. Use the formula x = 1/2 n (n+1). If n=12 days of Christmas, x = the number of gifts.

#1: Teresa K (fasstar) on Dec 3, 2009 [SPOILER]

Since my art work is limited to 12 tiny spaces, you might not be able to recognize everything. I will explain what each square contains:

1 baby partridge in a pear tree, with some holly decorations.

2 turtle doves gazing at each other (no, it's not a bell) with a little heart in the middle. Ain't love grand!

3 french hens just hanging out.

4 calling birds. The eastern bluebird is known for its sweet song. Just don't look up.

5 golden rings. Each of these is mounted with a 3.5 carat star ruby. Whoever is giving these gifts must be loaded!

6 geese a laying around waiting for their ganders.

7 swans descending onto the lake for a little swim. Brrrrr. Watch out for the ice, fellas.

8 maids a sitting on their little milking stools. "Moo!" (translated: "Yikes, are your hands ever cold!")

9 ladies dancing. They actually look like they're leaping.

10 lords a leaping. No, they look more like they are dancing. And one of them is facing the wrong direction. Oh dear. I think he is looking for his missing lady partner. Get your act together, lords and ladies!

11 pipers piping. Nice precision! They are good. Must be the Seven Pipers, a world famous band from right here in Tucson. I know, their name is "Seven Pipers" but they have at least 11 in the group. Really. Here they are with four of the ladies dancing:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1284887701147117941#docid=587326399561321581

12 drummers drumming. That's what it sounds like at my house when my son John is in his room playing his drums. Just kidding, he's really good. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2ftgeAWmRs

This was a great puzzle Teresa.

Thanks for your entry!

Thanks, Gator.

This was a great idea for a puzzle. Just 2 comments... I see 10 swans a' swimmin' (not 7) and the 10 lords a' leapin' look like Stonehenge. :-)

Oh no! If I fix it, you'll have to solve it again. If I don't fix it, it will be wrong, and messes up the formula. Accckkkkk! I can't stand mistakes that are fixable to not be fixed, so I'm going to correct it. Sorry to those who already solved it. Thank you, Adam, for pointing this out right away.

Those Lords a Leaping (or dancing) are so tall, they didn't fit in the puzzle box, so all you see are their boots (one each, as the other one is up in the air, outside of the box).

New version published by fasstar.

super fun

I didn't expect you to redo this, Teresa. I was just making an observation of what I noticed. Looks good, though.

nice puzzle. :) I like the boots. ;P

Charming. I went cross-eyed doing it, but I enjoyed every minute. Thanks.

Thanks, everyone. With all the positive comments, I wonder why it has a rating of only 2. For the amount of work and the challenge of getting everything to fit in a WC size grid, I was rather pleased with the end result. Can you see the black tams on the pipers and their red plaid bagpipes? :-)

This was almost like doing 12 small puzzles all grouped into one. Fun to pick away at and really imaginative.

Nobody solved my math problem. So I changed the title and gave you the answer.

I wonder if people chose not to solve this one because they thought it would be math or numbers?

i think this is a fabulous puzzle
you did a tremendous job getting all 12 days into a small-ish puzzle and still ending up with recognizable images
i loved it

fantastic puzzle! that was some serious work you put into it. took a lot of planning and thinking. challenging and extremely fun to solve.

The math problem is wrong. For example, the partridge in the pair tree is given 12 times for a total of twelve gifts while the golden rings are given 8 times for a total of 40 gifts. The actual number of gifts given is found by the fallowing (each element of the sum is the number of times the ith gift is given where the ith gift is the gift that is first given on the ith day):

sum[i*(13-i),{i,1,12}]=
13*sum[i,{i,1,12}]-sum[i^2,{i,1,12}]=
13*(12*(12+1)/2)-12*(12+1)*(2*12+1)/6=
364

Over the twelve days of Christmas, a total of 364 gifts are given. It's just that 78 gifts are given on the twelfth day.

Very clever. I honestly thought it was just random designs until I read the title. Thanks for the fun!

This was simply wonderful, Teresa...and John is fabulous too! I hardly ever tackle a large puzzle but thought I'd take a stab at it since it was one of yours...and I'm so glad I did!

Yo veo un puzzle muy original, y un número de regalos que siguen una progresión aritmética de 12 términos y razón 1, con lo que el total es correcto: 78.

¿Cuantos regalos habría si estuvieramos regalando los 366 días del año 2020?

Creo que 67.161....sería muy difícil hacer un puzzle así.

Aunque Teresa lo haría, seguro.

(✬‿✬)

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