Christmas puzzles 2022

Usually the puzzles in this blog are of the type “brainteasers”, uniquely constructed puzzles. There is another type of puzzles, which I call magazine puzzles. The best know examples are crosswords and sudoku. The latter have clear rules, a fixed format, but still every puzzle is different.

The puzzles I designed for Christmas 2022 are of the latter type. For each of the following five problems, the words have been taken from the Christmas stories in the classical King James translation. This alas results in some outdated words. Your task in each of the five problems is to fit the words into the yellow boxes.

It’s a tradition on this blog to publish a special blogpost for Christmas. People tend to have days off and spend more time with their family then during ordinary weeks. There is no advanced knowledge of the English language necessary. I wish you a lot of pleasure solving these puzzles.

Churches may use these puzzles for thei sunday classes, weekly newsletter, and similar publications, as long as you mention the source and don’t sue me. Copying materials is entirely your responsibility.

1) Matthew 1 ^**/*****
All words are used from left to right or top-down.

appeared
begat
brethren
brought
emmanuel
example
firstborn
forth
generation
minded
people

2) Matthew 2: 1-12 ^**/*****
All words are used from left to right or top-down.

bethlehem
days
demanded
diligently
eat
gathered
house
jerusalem
judaea
least
opened
priests
together
troubled

3) Matthew 2: 13-end ^*/*****
All words are used from left to right or top-down.

appeareth
called
children
comforted
destroy
egypt
enquired
herod
jeremy
lamentation
might
prophet
prophets
rachel
under

4) Luke 1 : 1-22^***/*****
Words can not only be filled in top-down and from left to right, but also starting at bottom and from right to left.

appeareth
called
children
comforted
destroy
egypt
herod
jeremy
lamentation
might
prophet
prophets
rachel
under

5) Luke 1 : 22-end^***/*****
Like the previous one, words can be in any direction: top-down, down to top, left to right, or right to left.

accomplished
cousin
darkness
dayspring
delivered
deserts
elisabeth
espoused
highly
hungry
joseph
leaped
ministration
neighbours
overshadow
promised
prophets
reproach
salutation
saluted

I apologize beforehand if there are any undetected errors in the puzzles. Please check them before copying them in any other medium.

You can find the solutions here.

Bongard and history

Today we expand Bongard puzzles into the realm of history.

The Bongard puzzle below shows three boxes. Each box lists 6 or 7 historical persons. According to What secret rule(s) have they been grouped? What is the logic?

New puzzles are published at least once a month on Fridays. Solutions are published after one or more weeks. You are welcome to remark on the difficulty level of the puzzles, discuss alternate solutions, and so on. Puzzles are rated on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. You can check your solution here.