Merry Christmas! I hope everyone was bestowed with fun presents. I received some chocolate sardines and was weirdly disappointed when I discovered they weren't chocolate-flavoured sardines.

Here's a few extra snacks from the GAPP team.

Previous puzzles in each genre:
Nurimisaki (bakpao): Archive: Monday, 8 December 2025
Aqre (jovi): Archive: Friday, 1 August 2025
Shugaku/School Trip (Freddie): Archive: Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Canal View (shye): Archive: Thursday, 25 January 2024
Choco Banana (Lavaloid): Archive: Monday, 22 December 2025

If you don't remember the rules for any of these genres, I recommend trying the example from the post.

Acquire a Speedy Sloth 🦥 by solving the puzzle in 7:25 or less!
Obtain a Quick Crab 🦀 by solving the puzzle in 13:25 or less!
And all solvers who complete the puzzle will be rewarded with a Noël Noisy Friarbird 🐦

PUZZLES
Nurimisaki, by Lavaloid: https://tinyurl.com/yjt22r8u
Aqre, by shye: https://tinyurl.com/yc4vu6ky
Shugaku/School Trip, by jovi: https://tinyurl.com/2fcm9djy
Canal View, by Walker: https://tinyurl.com/3wte98dm
Choco Banana, by Freddie Hand: https://tinyurl.com/n47pvc4y

RULES

Nurimisaki: Shade some cells so that the remaining unshaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded or unshaded. Circles mark every instance of a cell which is unshaded and orthogonally adjacent to exactly one other unshaded cell. If a circle contains a number, it indicates how many cells are in the straight line of unshaded cells coming out of the cell with the circle, including itself.

Aqre: Shade some cells such that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected network. A line of shaded or unshaded cells must not be longer than three cells. Regions indicate the number of shaded cells within them.

Shugaku/School Trip: Place some non-overlapping 1x2 beds into the grid such that each bed contains a pillow on one of its cells, and that vertically oriented beds do not have the pillow on the top half. Shade all of the non-bed cells such that each bed is orthogonally adjacent to at least one shaded cell, all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected network, and no 2x2 regions of cells are entirely shaded. Cells containing circles cannot be shaded cells nor beds, and if a circle is numbered, it indicates the number of cells containing pillows orthogonally adjacent to it.

Canal View: Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area and no 2x2 region is entirely shaded. Clues cannot be shaded, and represent the number of shaded cells connected in a straight line horizontally or vertically to the clue.

Choco Banana: Shade some cells so that all areas of orthogonally connected shaded cells are rectangular and all areas of orthogonally connected unshaded cells are not rectangular. A clue represents the size of its group of shaded/unshaded cells.

This is the 5th Christmas GAPP is celebrating! If you haven't already, check out the last four Christmas posts as well for a full advent calendar of puzzles (plus a couple extra!)

2021: Archive: Saturday, 25 December 2021
2022: Archive: Sunday, 25 December 2022
2023: Archive: Monday, 25 December 2023
2024: Archive: Wednesday, 25 December 2024