Friday 18 November 2016

Help please.

Foxglove Covert Nature Reserve is an excellent facility on the Garrison at Catterick, close to where I live (the largest Garrison in Europe).   It goes from strength to strength and has a wonderful selection of bird life, mammal life, flora - and a good building for teaching groups and just sitting around and chatting about what can be seen over a cup of tea.

Four or five times a year I produce Cryptic Quiz Sheets, which they sell at £1  a copy for funds.   One, on Games and Pastimes, is about to finish.
Because it is so near Christmas I thought I would do the next sheet on Christmas itself - the answers all being words connected with the Festive Season.

I also thought I would do it in alphabetical form - one question,  the answer to which is the next letter of the alphabet - and then perhaps to end - one question the answer to which is the letters in Merry Christmas.  

But finding words which I can use to set clues around is harder than I thought.   I need other brains please.

Some letters I already have plenty of possible words - e.g. Star, shepherds, stuffing, stocking, stollen, Santa (I only need one word but some words are difficult to clue).

Some letters I am stuck on.   So can you please help me out?   I need Christmassy words for the following letters -  L;  O;  U; V; X; Z.    Any other letters would be alright.   If I already have the word you suggest it doesn't matter does it?

But any help you can give me would be very much appreciated. 

22 comments:

donna baker said...

Zusa from It's A Wonderful Life.

kippy said...

Xmas, lamb, virgin

Derek Faulkner said...

Log fire

SandyExpat said...

L = Log, Love

O = Ornament, Oranges

U = Unity, Unwrap

V = Virgin Mary, Vixen, Visitors

Y = Yule, Yams

Z = zzzz, Zwarte Piet


Gwil W said...


L is for Love

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

L - lamb, lowing (as in the cattle are lowing), lords a leaping, ladies dancing, lights, Last Christmas was a hit for Wham! Little Drummer Boy, and Christmas Lists, Pat, Christmas Lists!
O - perhaps one of the 5 gold rings, organ (as in the playing of the merry organ), O Come All Ye faithful, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, oranges, office party, ornaments
U - unto us a child is born, under the tree,
V - Virgin Mary, Vivaldi wrote a Christmas Concerto, Vixen is one of Santa's reindeer
X - Xmas, X also represents a kiss as in under the mistletoe,
Z - Zzzzzzzz - what I shall be doing after Christmas dinner!

Yael said...

Z- zesty
L- lists
O-oven, observance
U-unrup
V-vacation, vanilla

Wilma said...

lemon, lime, lavender, light, love
ungent, universe, union,
yon, year,
zest, zip, zipper, zipline
xylophone, Xunantunich (a Maya ruin near us),
ornament, origami, organ,
violin, violet, viand, veranda, verdant, vision

for laughs based on your blog readers: zombie, Xercise4less,

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks so far. Obviously didn't make it clear that the words must be Christmas related - but some really good ones added already. Keep them coming - very helpful.

Rachel Phillips said...

O is for Over-indulgence
L is for Liqueurs
V is for Vomit (after you have over-indulged) or Vegan, the one who wants the nut roast
X is for XXX kisses or Xmas of course
U is for Undies (a favourite Christmas present)
Z is for Zonked out or Zombie (again, after you have Over-indulged)

I hope these help Weave.

Mrs. Armstrong said...

Z is for Zechariah (father of John the Baptist)
O is for Oxen
V is for Virgin Mary
U is for under the mistletoe
L is for lights
X is for ...

Anonymous said...

Zither carol - our choir sing it. Words here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OQDK8Y1bBcE

Heather said...

I am relieved to see so many suggestions - I don't have to tax my tired brain for you. Hope you manage to get all your quiz questions done in good time.

pat chester said...

Xmas is the secular form for Christmas for people wanting to remove Christ from Christmas. What they don't realise is that X is the Roman Numeral for 10. In Hebrew numbers have a significant meaning and the number 10 (X) is the Messianic number ie the number of Christ. Perhaps you can do something with that.

Joanne Noragon said...

Lights; voices

Midmarsh John said...

Some places to explore:
https://myvocabulary.com/word-list/christmas-vocabulary/
https://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071218084525AADnn7E

Frances said...

Pat, thank you for letting us test our minds to come up with some words that you could use in your Christmas clues. I admit that many before me have had much better suggestions than I could manage.

I might suggest clues pointing the puzzlers towards a word appearing in some Christmas carols or familiar tunes.

L for lyrics, or 9 Ladies or 10 Lords

O for Once in Royal David's City...

U for it came Upon a...

V for virgin without a doubt

X might have to be for Xmas, and I like Pat's comment

Z could be used as a countdown number ...zero, as in it's 12:01 am on Dec 25...how many days to Christmas?

This was fun! xo

Yorkshire Pudding said...

L- lights
O- opening (of presents), oranges ( with cloves and ribbon at Christingle service)
U- unwrapping (of presents) under (the tree)
V - Vixen (one of the reindeer)
X - xxx (kisses on Christmas cards)
Z - zero degrees (it's cold outside) or sleeping off Christmas with ZZZZZZZ

Cro Magnon said...

I did a week's pre-Sandhurst Officer training at Catterick. I don't have particularly good memories of the course.

I'll go along with Rachel for your alphabet question.

The Weaver of Grass said...

More super help - thanks to you all. Rachel's made me smile.
And Cro - it is now a very smart place indeed but of course whether the officer
training is any more enjoyable I wouldn't know.

GillyK said...

O for Orient?

The Weaver of Grass said...

Thanks Gilly! I didn't have a single O