The Advent Calendar Challenge 
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Hello and welcome to the 2024 Advent Calendar Challenge!

The Advent Calendar Challenge is a fun yearly competition, where players are invited to guess what the pictures behind the windows on my advent calendar will be each day. Points are awarded for correctly guessing the picture, and the winner is simply the person who gets the most points over the course of the competition. Simple. Easy. Fun. If you're still a bit in the dark about things, have a look at the 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2003 competitions to see what went on.

If you played last year you should get a PIN in your inbox automatically, and you can get started by submitting your guess in the form below! If you didn't play last year and want to play, apply for a PIN via the registration page. Once you have received your PIN, use the form below to submit your guess. You can change your guess as often as you like. The guess registered at the time of a window being opened is assessed for points on each day, and please note there is no need to sumbit a new guess every day as your guess remains in place until you change it or until it comes up, however long that may be! Your guess need not be unique. The eventual winner might win a top secret prize...

Two important points about choosing your guess:

And last but not least, I've finally flipped the points scoring system back to the way I've always thought it should be, so possibly for this year only the earlier a successful guess occurs, the more points it is worth - from 24 points on day 1 all the way down to 1 point on Christmas Eve. As a result, there is no longer any penalty points for joining the game late. We'll see how it goes!

Good Luck!

Current Standings
Pos Player / Team Score
   1  miniscriv   Pisces 79 (6) R
   2  Tony Wilson  Aries 72 (7) PB
116
   3  Glen Bryant  Virgo 61 (6) PB
   4  Tom White  Gemini 60 (4) PB
121
   5  Douglas Cameron  Taurus 45 (3) PB
126
   6  Jen Fegan  Leo 38 (2) PB
55
   7  Joseph Palmer  Aquarius 37 (4) PB
116
   8  Mark Coughlan  Taurus 29 (3) PB
123
   9  James Laughlin  Aries 28 (4) PB
174
1  10  Chris Davey  Leo 27 (5) PB
110
1  11  Laz Kay  Libra 27 (3) PB
68
   12  Matt Nunn  Taurus 25 (5) PB
88
1  13  Neil Blake  Aries 24 (3) PB
157
1  14  Ben Procter  Cancer 24 (3) PB
164
2  15  Kevin Brown  Taurus 22 (4) PB
108
2  16  Veronica White  Aquarius 22 (3) PB
135
2  17  Chris Green  Leo 22 (3) PB
92
2  18  Peter Smyth  Gemini 22 (2) PB
156
   19  Simon Gosney  Gemini 21 (4) PB
106
2  20  Matthew Frost  Aries 20 (4) PB
172
1  21  Nina Dale  Gemini 20 (3) PB
93
1  22  Gagandeep Singh Bharij  Cancer 20 (1) PB
57
   23  Simon Rutter  Capricorn 17 (4) PB
146
   24  Mike Krotosky  Cancer 15 (1) PB
80
   25  Antony Brown  Libra 13 (4) PB
121
   26  Håkan Wolgé  Taurus 13 (3) PB
162
1  27  Eleda Johnson  Cancer 12 (2) PB
117
1  28  Lorna Blake  Scorpio 11 (4) PB
105
1  29  Steph Coughlan  Pisces 11 (3) PB
139
   30  Nigel White  Pisces 10 (4) PB
133
   31  Samantha Scrivin  Sagittarius 9 (2) PB
183
   32  Andrew Dale  Pisces 8 (1) PB
131
   33  Cassie Laughlin  Virgo 7 (1) PB
111
1  34  Sean White  Leo 5 (2) PB
163
1  35  Emma Tuckey  Aries 5 (2) PB
81
1  36  Peter Lupton  Pisces 4 (1) PB
21
   37  Geoff Marshall  Leo 3 (1) PB
82
   38  Rosie Wallbank  Gemini 2 (1) PB
91
   39  Ross Turnbull  Libra 1 (1) PB
109
   =  Andrew Chilcraft  Aries 1 (1) PB
131

This year's teams' championship will be the same again - I'm interested in finding out which astrological star-sign is the best, so I'll be trying to coax your date of birth out of you shortly! Current standings:

Current Team Championship Standings
Pos Team # players Score
   1 Aries  Aries 6 players 101 (21)   +1
   2 Pisces  Pisces 5 players 92 (15)   +1
   3 Gemini  Gemini 5 players 84 (14)   +1
   4 Taurus  Taurus 5 players 78 (18)   +1
   5 Virgo  Virgo 2 players 65 (7)   +1
   6 Leo  Leo 5 players 63 (13)   +2
   7 Aquarius  Aquarius 2 players 48 (7)   +1
   8 Cancer  Cancer 4 players 42 (7)   
   9 Libra  Libra 3 players 35 (8)   +2
   10 Capricorn  Capricorn 1 player 17 (4)   +1
   11 Scorpio  Scorpio 1 player 11 (4)   +1
   12 Sagittarius  Sagittarius 1 player 9 (2)   

LATEST COMPETITION UPDATES: RSS feed

16:15:45, Tue 24th Dec One point is awarded to Glen B, Tom W, Joseph P, James L, Chris D, Matt N, Neil B, Kevin B, Veronica W, Simon G, Matthew F, Simon R, Antony B, HÃ¥kan W, Lorna B, Nigel W, Sean W, Ross T and Andrew C
16:15:45, Tue 24th Dec Door 24 opened, picture shows a chimney
14:45:39, Tue 24th Dec Andrew Chilcraft's guess has been changed
13:16:54, Tue 24th Dec Sean White's guess has been changed
12:22:17, Tue 24th Dec Chris Davey's guess has been changed
12:19:58, Tue 24th Dec Chris Davey's guess has been changed
08:52:32, Tue 24th Dec Cassie Laughlin's guess has been changed
08:36:04, Tue 24th Dec James Laughlin's guess has been changed
07:01:57, Tue 24th Dec Tony Wilson's guess has been changed
06:04:21, Tue 24th Dec Matthew Frost's guess has been changed

Items uncovered so far:

  1 Gingerbread Man 2 Stocking 3 Candy Cane 4 Marshmallows 5 Gifts 6 Bauble  
               
  7 Xmas Pudding 8 Santa Hat
&
Candy Cane
9 Yule Log 10 Sleigh
&
Reindeer
11 Tree 12 Christmas Jumper  
               
  13 Snowman 14 Turkey
&
Candle
15 Santa 16 House 17 Skier 18 Tinsel  
               
  19 Biscuits 20 Chicken 21 Toy Car 22 Wellies
&
Snowman
23 Sunglasses 24 Chimney  
               

Decisions

All decisions (disciplinary etc.), other than those to award points, are detailed publically. Please visit our decisions repository.

Random Stats

 Number of players: 40
 Number of players who can/cannot still win: 1 / 39
 Number of players who have been invited but are yet to play: 3 e.g. Damian Cook. Why, Damian, why? :-(
 Number of points remaining: 0

And to end off this mammoth page, a few subnotes. Have a look at the all-time stats page. Not many stats mind you, just a constantly updating all-time performance table. Clicking a player name in either the current standings or the stats table gives you a player profile page, showing their past performances in the ACC and a little picture just cos. And finally the rules in full. Subject to change of course...