15
$\begingroup$

This puzzle is part of the Puzzling Stack Exchange Advent Calendar 2024. The accepted answer to this question will be awarded a bounty worth 100 reputation.

< Previous Door Next Door >

Look, Santa's Baffled...

... so can you help him?

The Clauses were leaving North Pole Lutheran Church’s Christmas Eve service when the organist called them over. She gave them a brown hymnal with a sheet of paper sticking out.

Cryptic Family Household*

  1. Dumb dictator’s champion shredded cavalier father. (6 5, 4 5)
  2. Turn back after a popular boss exiled a sister. (4 2 1 6)
  3. Mother is regularly in a snug cell, a safer room. At the eerie walls, most of fog also grays. (6 4 3 6 2 5)
  4. Brother took deep sleep. He, instead of old boys, screwed with television sound, which lost 50’s tango. (5 9 6 5)

Translated into emojis**

  1. Let🙋➕🫵😄👋☹️ (3 3 8 6 7)
  2. 👀📥the🌬️’s❄️ (3 4 3 6’1 4)
  3. 🫴,🫵♥️➕🗣️⬆️ (4, 4 6 3 6 7)
  4. On🎄🌃💯✝️🎶 (2 9 5 3 10 4)

Anagrams

  1. Cool fey flu hate-mail (1 4, 3 2 8)
  2. Oh, understand eleven goals (3 3 8 4 2 3)
  3. Mandatory earth wedging (1 5 3 6 6)
  4. Master wets foot (4 4 2 4)

“There’s a final answer, which should come naturally after all that,” she said, smiling. “It’s what you're going to deliver tonight.”

What is the final phrase?

All clues/relevant information are above that ^ line. Below is some meta housekeeping.

Once you figure out the , or answers' theme, it’s possible to back-solve the individual clues, since the letter counts are given. Please still explain how each one works. Also, please do not post a partial answer unless you’ve solved at least half the clues.

The requires (definitely not common knowledge, though it is quite Google-able), but there wasn’t space left among the tags.

* A Cryptic Family Household is a Cryptic Family Reunion (cryptic clues where “father” etc. is the definition), except there are only four.

** If the emojis don't show up for you, this is what they're supposed to be:

emojis

Thank you @Prince North Læraðr for feedback & developing clue 3!

Improve this question
$\endgroup$

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
10
+100
$\begingroup$

The answers:

1 363 Silent night, holy night
2 365 Away in a manger
3 367 Angels from the realms of glory
4 369 Where shepherds lately knelt

5 371 Let our gladness banish sadness
6 373 See amid the winter's snow
7 375 Come, your hearts and voices raising
8 377 On Christmas night all Christians sing

9 379 O come, all ye faithful
10 381 Let our gladness have no end
11 383 A great and mighty wonder
12 385 From east to west

The numbers

are hymn numbers in the Lutheran Service Book.

Explanations for the cryptics:

1: dumb -> SILENT; dictator's = homophone indicator; knight / holey / knight.
2: YAW< after A + IN + (MANAGER - A).
3: alternate letters (yup, the whole thing).
4: This one's a doozy. "took": WORE. "deep sleep": SOPOR. "He, instead of old": replace each of the three "O"s with "HE", getting WHERESHEPHER. "Boys, screwed": LADS -> DSLA, so now we have WHERESHEPHERDSLA. "with" might go with "screwed" or just indicate appending. "television sound": TELLY KNELL. "which lost 50's": remove two LS, getting TELYKNEL. "tango": T. Put the whole charade together and you have WHERESHEPHER DSLA TELY KNEL T.

Explanations for the emoji:

5: Let [me] + [you] [happiness] [wave-goodbye] [sadness]
6: [See] [inbox symbol; but it's got an arrow pointing into the middle of something] the [cold blowing wind]'s [snow]
7: [Beckoning], [you] [heart] + [voice] [up]
8: On [Christmas tree] [night sky] [100% of] [cross symbolizing Christianity] [music]

The final answer which should come naturally after all that:

Continuing to #387 in the same book, we find JOY TO THE WORLD. One might nitpickily suggest that a devout Lutheran would want that joy to come from something more spiritual than getting presents, but I shall be neither a grinch nor a scrooge about this :-).

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
2
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ I'm sorry about clue 4, I swear this version is actually simpler than the original :) "screwed with" is actually a rot13(ebgngvba) indicator. There are four "sections" of wordplay: rot13(yrggre ercynprzrag, ebgngvba, yrggre qryrgvba, naq n svany nooerivngvba). Hopefully that should make it clear... I can also just edit on my explanation if you like $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 8, 2024 at 3:58
  • $\begingroup$ OK, I think I figured it all out. $\endgroup$ Commented Dec 8, 2024 at 17:48

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.