Happy Holidays #1: Gift Boxes
(Published on 1. December 2020, 00:00 by Big Tiger)
Standard Sudoku Rules apply to the final numerical layout. And digits along the two large diagonals may not repeat.
One year a lover of puzzles gave his children 25 Christmas presents, and they were allowed to open one a day from the 1st to Christmas Day (the 25th). But they had to open the gift boxes in a specific order, which they had to figure out.
Each present is a Killer Cage, and each cage's digits sum to a different total, from 1 to 25. Most of the cages are unlabeled and the sum must be determined.
A few of the cages are labeled with the Crypto letters that spell out "GIFT BOXES", which also correspond to the nine cells at the bottom of the grid.
*****
Setter's Diary :: December 1, 2020 :: At first it was going to be "The 12 Days of Xmas" with a dozen cages summing from 1 to 12. But that proved to be a scant few clues and an unsolvable puzzle. It was already midnight when my brain wondered, "Can I get 25 'presents' out of this?" The answer was almost "no" until I slid one present over and suddenly all 25 did indeed fit in the grid. After a test solve, I went to bed at 3:00 a.m. with a smile and visions of sugarplums dancing in my head. Happy solving, and Merry Christmas!
Solution code: Column 1, then Row 5
Comments
on 13. November 2023, 08:17 by jwmpuz
What a fun puzzle requiring a tremendously wonderful variety of logic!
on 28. July 2021, 10:16 by Mody
Es hat viel Spaß gemacht, "die Geschenke auszupacken".
It was a lot of fun "unwrapping the presents".
*** Ah, catching up on my past, I see! Thank you!
on 25. December 2020, 14:15 by PrimeWeasel
Right on schedule! Merry Christmas
on 14. December 2020, 21:58 by Big Tiger
Changed Title
on 7. December 2020, 22:06 by panthchesh
Thanks for the puzzle! It was fun! :D
on 5. December 2020, 19:28 by bob
Thanks for bringing attention to this puzzle which is wonderfully thematic and very fun as well. I too blame the flood; there are i'm sure many excellent puzzles out there that I don't even see. Someday I may retire and have more time for puzzles...
on 5. December 2020, 12:39 by PrimeWeasel
I'm taking 25 days to solve it, if you don't mind. Besides that, there is a massive puzzle flood.
*** Ha ha, take your time then. Yeah, I'm aware of the flood; was still just a LITTLE befuddled. Not wounded or angry, just befuddled. :-D
on 5. December 2020, 12:30 by Big Tiger
10 solves in 4 days ... I know it's not that difficult - is it just too messy? Generally uninteresting?
on 1. December 2020, 10:45 by PetLov
This was really nice and pretty straight forward.
Thank you and merry Christmas to you to :-)
*** Thanks for trying it out! Glad you liked.
