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This puzzle is part of the Puzzling Stack Exchange Advent Calendar 2024. The accepted answer to this question will be awarded a bounty worth 150 reputation.

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Seasons Greetings PSE, Santa Claus here and I am in a little bit of a pickle whereby I need this community of very smart and talented people to help me. You see, I was currently delivering my presents as I usually do every year and everything was going plain sailing until I read the list of this particular family! Someone has played a naughty prank as the list of presents has been heavily distorted. To make matter worse, I can’t remember what was asked for! Fortunately, it isn’t too badly messed up. Since this looks like a puzzle to solve and I am not up to the task, I am asking you guys to help me out!

Here is the list:

The ??AK-O Family Presents
Horatio (Father) ?SIU?C ?A?BB
? (Mother) L?W?J T ??O
Anatoly (son) Y?T R?TC ??ITCA
Judit (daughter) ??IR L?S ???F
Vera (baby) S?AB L?M
Garry (pet) ST
Family Piano ST?AHC L

Your mission is to find out the names, presents that I need to give and the culprit needing to be punished before it’s too late!

Hint 1:

If I recall correctly the family are all very fond of a certain game except for maybe one of them. Also for the pet well he is the sort that likes to hop around…

Hint 2:

A couple of things… some of the letters may feel like they should be omitted but they have not been only to make the puzzle less difficult. Also one user thought about a horse but while the item would fit a horse think about another hopping pet…

Hint 3

L _ _ _ _

Hint 4

The culprit’s name has 6 letters

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    $\begingroup$ what kind of family asks for gifts for their piano but doesn't give it a name? $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 6, 2024 at 19:06
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    $\begingroup$ While we're confirming names -- definitely Judith, not Judit? $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 8, 2024 at 2:47
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    $\begingroup$ It's on +9-2 right now. No idea who the downvotes are from but any puzzle can get random drive-by downvotes. I'd advise not taking it personally and hope you undelete it -- it looks like an interesting puzzle. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 8, 2024 at 12:34
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    $\begingroup$ @GarethMcCaughan it’s undeleted. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 8, 2024 at 13:32
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    $\begingroup$ It occurs to me to wonder: should this have the [knowledge] tag or not? (On the basis of what I've worked out so far it's neither obvious that it should nor obvious that it shouldn't.) $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 9, 2024 at 1:08

1 Answer 1

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First of all, the game they're fond of (see Hint 1) is pretty clearly

chess.

The names

are those of famous chess players. Horatio CARO (as in the Caro-Kann opening, and it looks as if CARO-KANN is actually the family name for some reason); Anatoly Karpov (former world champion), Judit Polgar (strongest ever female player), Vera Menchik (an earlier eminent female player), Garry Kasparov (arguably the greatest player of all time). And the piano is probably a Giuoco Piano.

The presents

are reversed, and have some letters censored and some missing entirely. The entirely-missing letters seem in most (all?) cases to be CAR + one or two others. In comments OP clarifies that the intention is that they're all rough homophones of "cara".

So we have

Horatio Caro, father: [CARI]BBEAN CRUISE -> eSIUrC nAeBB[]
? ?, mother: ONE [CARA]T JEWEL -> LeWeJ T[] enO
Anatoly Karpov, son: ACTION [CHARA]CTER TOY -> YoT ReTC[] noITCA
Judit Polgar, daughter: FREE [CAROU]SEL RIDE -> eerF LeS[] edIR
Vera Menchik, baby: [CARA]MEL BARS -> SrAB LeM[]
Garry Kasparov, rabbit: [CARRO]TS -> ST[]
Giuoco? Piano: [CARO]L CHARTS -> STrAHC L[]

Now

it seems like we should look either at the censored letters or at the completely omitted ones that aren't just CAR. It turns out that the latter aren't important, but the former are:

NN     [CAR]O-KAnn
ENRE   [CARI]BBeAn CrUISe
NEEE   One [CARA]T JeWeL
ONO    ACTIon [CHARA]CTER ToY
REEDE  Free [CAROU]SeL RIde
ER     [CARA]MeL BArS
-      [CARRO]TS
R      [CARO]L CHArTS

Now,

what do those censored letters have in common? They are all instances of D,E,N,O,R. I'd been looking for a culprit in the family, but it turns out it was one of my staff all along: the reindeer DONNER has been messing with the present-lists for some reason and has rather counterproductively tried to hide his tracks by suppressing things that could be part of his name.

As for the mother,

apparently she is KAREN Asrian (who despite the name is actually male). This was guessed by user39583 and I still have no idea how; I suppose it's relevant that the first name begins with a rough homophone of ‘CARA’, but that's not a thing that was going on with any of the other first names.

Credit where due:

Florian F and DanielS made suggestions for the daughter's present containing the key word RIDE which I'd completely missed. user39583 somehow figured almost all the last bits out, apparently by magic :-). And PDT, author of the question, kindly confirmed and corrected various things.

Nitpickery:

I don't really understand why this is the Caro-Kann family rather than just the Caro family. (The Caro-Kann opening is named after two people, Horatio Caro and Marcus Kann.) I don't know how we were supposed to guess that the mother (1) is named after a male chess player and (2) has a first name that begins with something that sounds like "Caro" (a constraint not obeyed by any of the other family members). But evidently guessing that was possible, since user39583 managed to do it, so the fault is clearly mine :-).

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  • $\begingroup$ I think you're onto something with rot13(crg jbhyq or A) because rot13(xavtugf "ubc" naq fb qb enoovgf) $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 10, 2024 at 4:13
  • $\begingroup$ Ok you are extremely close to completing the puzzle. A few things… firstly cara+o= caro. The pattern is related to homophones. Secondly The daughter’s present is partly wrong. I will drop a hint later for the culprit extraction. It is way simpler than you think but is maybe a little unorthodox. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 10, 2024 at 4:36
  • $\begingroup$ rot13(svar evqr) ? $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 10, 2024 at 7:05
  • $\begingroup$ rot13(SNVE PNEBHFRY EVQR)? feels more likely than rot13(SNEQ PNEBHFRY EVQR) $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 10, 2024 at 7:58
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    $\begingroup$ rot13(Gur svefg jbeq bs gur qnhtugre'f tvsg pbhyq or SERR naq gur zbgure'f anzr pbhyq or XNERA/PNEBA. Vs gur phycevg unf jnagrq gb uvqr yrggre'f nccrnevat va gurve anzr, gura vg zvtug cbffvoyl or QBAARE.) $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 10, 2024 at 13:28

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