Five Brilliant Brain Teasers For The Week: Christmas Edition

Pop the kettle on, grab a mince pie, and see how many of these you can crack before peeking at the answers!

🧠 1) The Late Santa (Easy)

On Christmas Eve, Santa visits a house at 11:55 p.m.

He stays inside for 10 minutes, delivering presents and eating a mince pie.

When Santa leaves, it’s still Christmas Eve.

How is this possible?

🧠 2) The Christmas Choir (Easy)

A Christmas choir sings for five nights in a row.

Each night, more people hear them sing than the night before.

Yet, fewer people are in the audience each night.

How can this be?

🧩 3) The Mixed-Up Stockings (Medium)

Three stockings are hanging by the fireplace, labeled:

SOCKS

CHOCOLATE

MIXED

Each stocking contains either only socks, only chocolate, or a mix of both — but every label is wrong.

You may take one item from one stocking (without looking inside beforehand).

How can you correctly relabel all three stockings?

🧩 4) The Snowy Footprints (Medium)

On Christmas morning, someone sees a single set of footprints in the snow leading from the road to their front door.

There are no footprints leading away.

No one used a broom or cleared the snow.

How did this happen?

🧠💥 5) The Twelve Days Puzzle (Hard)

On the first day of Christmas, a person receives 1 gift.

On the second day, they receive 2 new gifts,

On the third day, 3 new gifts,

…and so on, until the twelfth day.

Assuming all previous gifts are given again each day (as in the song):

How many total gifts does the person receive by the end of the twelfth day?

✅ Festive Answers (no peeking early!)

1) The Late Santa

Santa crossed a time zone (or the International Date Line).

It was still Christmas Eve where he landed, even after 10 minutes had passed.

2) The Christmas Choir

They were singing on radio or television.

Each night, more people heard the broadcast overall — but fewer were physically present.

3) The Mixed-Up Stockings

Take one item from the stocking labeled MIXED.

Since the label is wrong, it must contain only one type.

If you pull out socks, that stocking is SOCKS.

The stocking labeled CHOCOLATE must then be MIXED (labels are wrong).

The remaining stocking is CHOCOLATE.

Same logic applies if you pull out chocolate.

4) The Snowy Footprints

The person left through the back door (or another exit), but only arrived via the front.

5) The Twelve Days Puzzle

This is the classic cumulative gift problem.

Total gifts =

1×12 + 2×11 + 3×10 + … + 12×1

This equals 364 gifts.

🎁 Answer: 364 gifts in total