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Welcome to 2025 everyone! It's time to reveal the answers to the Advent Calendar puzzles and announce the winners. But first, some good news: with your help, Santa was able to open the warehouse to get the presents and Christmas was saved!

Now that the competition is over, the questions and all the answers can be found at mscroggs.co.uk/puzzles/advent2024. Before announcing the winners, I'm going to go through some of my favourite puzzles from the calendar and a couple of other interesting bits and pieces.

My first highlight is the puzzle from 2 December. I like this puzzle, because at first it looks really difficult, as there are so many different combinations that could be rolled with 100 dice. But after some thought, it turns out that the answer isn't any different to if there were only 2 dice.

My next highlight is the puzzle on 6 December, as it can be solved by spotting a really satisfying pattern.

My final highlight is the puzzle from 23 December. I like this puzzle so much that I've written a whole blog post about it, and am in the middle of writing a second blog post about it.

Once you've entered 24 answers, the calendar checks these and tells you how many are correct. I logged the answers that were sent for checking and have looked at these to see which puzzles were the most and least commonly incorrect. The bar chart below shows the total number of incorrect attempts at each question.

It looks like the hardest puzzles were on 23 and 8 December; and the easiest puzzles were on 1 and 15 December.

To finish the Advent calendar, you were tasked with opening the warehouse full of presents. The answers to all the puzzles were required to be certain of which combination of parts were needed to open the warehouse, but it was possible to reduce the number of options to a small number and get lucky when trying these options. This year only one person got lucky early. This graph shows how many people opened the warehouse on each day:

And finally (and maybe most importantly), on to the winners: 237 people managed to open the warehouse. That's a record high number!

From the correct answers, the following 10 winners were selected:

Congratulations! Your prizes will be on their way shortly.

The prizes this year include 2024 Advent calendar T-shirts. If you didn't win one, but would like one of these, I've made them available to buy at merch.mscroggs.co.uk alongside the T-shirts from previous years.

Additionally, well done to 100118220919, Aaron Stiff, Aglahir, Aidan Dodgson, Alan Buck, Alan Shotkin, alek2ander, Alex, Alex Hartz, Aline M. Lee, Allan Taylor, Anastasiia, Andrea Chlebikova, Andrew Brady, Andrew Roy, Andrew T, Andrew Thomson, Andy Ennaco, Ashley Jarvis, Austin Antoniou, Becky Russell, Ben, Ben Reiniger, Ben Tozer, Ben Weiss, Berl Steiner, Bill Varcho, Blake, BlueStorminator, Bogdan, Brian Wellington, Carmen, Carol Cooper, Cathy Hooper, Celer, Chris Eagle, Colin Beveridge, Colin Brockley, Corbin Groothuis, Dahé, Dan May, Dan Swenson, Dan Whitman, Daniel A, Daniel Low, Daphne, Dave, Dave Cowen, David, David Ault, David Banham, David Berardo, David Fox, David Kendel, Dhruv Pisharody, Dimitri Cacouris, Donald Anderson, Dylan Madisetti, Ean, Elizabeth Ann Madisetti, Ellie Winters, Elytre, Emily Troyer, Eoin Davey, Eric, Eric Kolbusz, Erick Lee, Erik Eklund, Evil Loanword, Ewan, Ewan Leeming, Fionn Woodcock, Frank Kasell, Fred Verheul, Gabriella Pinter, Gareth McCaughan, Gary M, Gary M. Gerken, George Witty, Gert-Jan, glocq, Green, Greg W., Guillermo Heras Prieto, Hannah Harris, Heerpal Sahota, Helen, Helen, Henri, Herschel, Holly Carnes, Håkon Balteskard, Iris Lasthofer, Ivan Andrus, Ivan Molotkov, Izzi, Jack, Jake, Jamas Enright, James Dolengewicz, Jamie van Otter, Jan Zemba, Jay Winter, JDev, Jean-Noël Monette, Jen Sparks, Jessica Marsh, Jim Ashworth, Joe Gage, Johan, Johannes C. Huber, John Drake, John Warwicker, Jon Palin, Jonathan Chaffer, Jonathan Thiele, Jorge del Castillo Tierz, Judith Werner, Justin Roughley, Kai, Kat Yates, Katerina Stergiopoulou, Katharine Velleman, Kelly Spoon, Kenneth McComas, Kevin Docherty, kil k, Kirsty Fish, Kristen Koenigs, Larry Goddard, Laura Kaplan, Lauren W., Lazar Ilic, Lincoln Ford, Lise Andreasen, Lizzie McLean, Logan Davis, Louis, Lucas Bowman, Lyra, Magnus Eklund, Marco van der Park, Mark Fisher, Mark Lydon, Martijn, Martin Harris, Martin Holtham, Martine Nome, Matthieu, Michael DeLyser, Mihai Zsisku, Mike Graczyk, Mike Hands, Miles Lunger, Millie, Mr J Winfield, Nadim Shawky, Nadine Chaurand, Naomi, Nazneen Molu, Neil Bastian, Neil M., Nick C, Nick Keith, Nikos Iakovidis, Noah Molder, Oliver Mills, olligobber, Pamela, Pete Chare, Peter Rowlett, Philip Corradi, Pierce R, Qaysed, Quinnifer, Rachel Sheridan, Rashi Gaba, Ray Arndorfer, Reuben, Riccardo Lani, Rob Reynolds, Roger Lipsett, Roni, Rosie P, Ross Ogilvie, Ruth Franklin, Sadie Sage Robinson, Sam Dreilinger, Sami Wannell, Sarah, Sarah B, Scott, Sean Henderson, Seth Cohen, Shannon, Shivanshi, stephen, Stephen Cappella, stephen kirkham, Steve Blay, Steven Richardson, Stuart MacDonald, Sumaya Felic, Tehnuka, The Connors of York, The Secret Kite, Tim Dufton, Tina, Todd, Tony Mann, Tony Palmer, Trevor Casey, tripleboleo, tt1991, Tyaka, Tyler St Clare, UsrBinPRL, Valentin VĂLCIU, Victor Miller, Vinayak, Vinny R, wilberforce314, William Huang, Yasha, Yuliya Nesterova, and Zoran Morrissey-Ralevic who all also completed the Advent calendar but were too unlucky to win prizes this time or chose to not enter the prize draw.

See you all next December, when the Advent calendar will return.