Happy Holidays!

“Stamp you mark on what’s in double” is pointing you toward the stamps, and something “in double.” You can also see that when you fill in the blanks, the solution should have two words, first word = 4 letters, second word = 6 letters. Good start!

Looking at the stamps, you can notice that the top half of the red mailbox has 4 stamps, and the bottom half has 6 stamps. Nice! This could be your two words! Now you need to find something about them that is “in double.”

Pizza, Bee, Squirrel, Cookie…Do you notice anything in double?

Let’s try the bottom half. Dress, Button, Carrot, Cheese, Chess, Kiss. Each of these words has two…of something! Look closely at the words!

Each word pictured on the stamps has double letters like -ss, -ll, -ff, or -zz. Write down the double letter from each stamp, from left to right. First - the four stamps on the top half, second - six stamps on the bottom half.

ZERO STRESS

Let’s start with what we know. You’re looking for four letters. There are four elves and six locations with winter activities around the North Pole. Hmm…

Learn all the winter activities the North Pole offers. Now take a close look at those mischievous elves. The card says they had too much fun! But how so?

Wet clothes, missing teeth… Each elf shows the consequences of overindulging in a winter activity. Can you match each elf to the activity?

How can you extract a letter from each winter activity? Check the signs closely. Each one has a letter that stands out.

Four letters = four elves (left to right) = the consequences of four winter activities. Look at the signs on the back of the card—each has a single capital letter.

Carol’s snowball fight (marks on her clothes), Angel’s ice fishing (wet clothes, fish hook), Fable’s snowboarding (face tan from a mask), Eve’s hockey (missing teeth).

Take the capital letters from each activity: C A F E.

What a gorgeous bookshelf! Notice how all the green books on the sixth row have letters. Mixed-color books also have letters scattered around… Do they spell something?

The letters on the colorful books spell a sentence when read row by row, left to right.

PUSH SHELF SIX UP AND DOWN TO FILL EMPTY SPACES. So, let’s do it! Move the green books with letters to the shelves above and below. But how do you know where each book goes? Look closely at the three bottom rows.

Check which books have free spaces above or below. For example, the first green book (H) has no free spaces, so it stays put. But the second book has space above it on the fifth shelf, and the third book (C) has space below on the bottom shelf.

Push the green books with letters based on the free spaces above or below them. Be careful—some books lean against their neighbors, so focus on where their bases sit.

Some books don’t move at all because they don’t have free spaces. When you’re done, you’ll have three rows of letters, spelling a festive message!

H A V E A
H O L L Y J O L L Y
C H R I S T M A S

Welcome to the most puzzling gift shop ever! The assortment of gifts is bonkers, and you are expected to somehow use them all to decipher the Christmas wish of the cruel person who sent this to you. Whew. You’ll need to fill six spaces before “be” and three spaces after.

Each gift has a letter (or two) assigned. How many gifts are there?

Nine spaces to fill and nine gifts—coincidence? Not at all! To figure out the order, try naming each gift out loud: a dinosaur, a water gun… It’s fun and surprisingly helpful!

Check the note on the back. The answers rhyme with “one two three.” What’s that about?

Start simple: One—Water Gun.

Some gifts are tricky! Especially the Hard Drive and Cake Mix, right?.

1 - Water Gun
2 - Shoe
3 - Tea
4 - Dinosaur
5 - Hard Drive
6 - Cake Mix
7 - (already filled with BE)
8 - Plate
9 - Wine
10 - Pen

Arrange the letters in the same order: KE E PU C LO SE (yes, it’s our Scarlet Envelope logo!) BE SI DE ME.
“KEEP YOU CLOSE BESIDE ME!” Aww!

Let’s tackle our hardest postcard! No prior music knowledge needed (though it helps). Start with the green sleeve—it hints at how the cipher works. The first two notes = HO, and the second pair = HO as well!

No luck with the HOs? Oh well, let’s break down HO #1. :) The first note crosses the second line twice (D according to the songbook), so H = DD. The second letter crosses the last line (E) three times, so O = EEE.

There’s a letter-to-numbers conversion table on the back. Could that help?

Let’s decode the second HO. H crosses the 4th line (G), then the space between the 3rd and 4th lines (A). O crosses D, E, F.

H = DD, so could it mean H = D + D? Similarly, O = E + E + E.

Think numerically: H (8th letter) = D (4th letter) + D (4th letter). O (15) = E (5) + E (5) + E (5). Now you know how the cipher works! Whew.

Now pay attention to the notes that "peek" outside the lines (some are crossed over with a short line and some are not.) Notice also that F and E repeat twice (assigned to lines and also to spaces between the lines.) These two phenomena are connected.

The letters assigned to lines and spaces form a loop. Here’s an image to help.

Using the loop, decode the first bottom row note: it floats in the space above F (G). The third bottom row note hits a line below E (C), and the second-to-last hits A. Now you’re ready to decipher the whole song!

TOP ROW: DD / A / EFEF / E / A / GED / BG
BOTTOM ROW: GG / E / GGGC / GF / A / GGE
Finally, do the math! DD = 4 + 4 = 8 = H, etc.

HAVE A PINE XMAS!