The Advent Calendar Challenge 
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Hello and welcome to the 2023 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 (from 1 point on December 1st all the way up to 24 on Christmas Eve) 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 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 finally, please note that if you start the competition late then you will be deducted the number of points equivalent to how late you started, to encourage playing the whole game and to reward those that do.

Good Luck!

Current Standings
Pos Player / Team Score
   1  Eleda Johnson  Cancer 117 (6) R  2 in a row!
   2  Joseph Palmer  Aquarius 116 (6) PB  5 in a row!
   3  Samantha Scrivin  Sagittarius 115 (6) PB
183
 2 in a row!
   4  Chris Davey  Leo 110 (6) PB  2 in a row!
   5  Neil Blake  Aries 109 (6) PB
157
 4 in a row!
   6  Kevin Brown  Taurus 108 (6) PB  3 in a row!
   7  Nigel White  Pisces 106 (5) PB
133
 3 in a row!
   8  Lorna Blake  Scorpio 105 (6) PB  3 in a row!
   9  Ross Turnbull  Libra 105 (5) PB
109
 4 in a row!
   10  Ben Procter  Cancer 100 (5) PB
164
 4 in a row!
   11  Mark Coughlan  Taurus 99 (6) PB
123
 3 in a row!
   12  Simon Gosney  Gemini 97 (6) PB
106
 3 in a row!
   13  Nina Dale  Gemini 93 (6) PB  2 in a row!
   14  Andrew Chilcraft  Aries 91 (5) PB
131
 4 in a row!
1  15  James Laughlin  Aries 88 (5) PB
174
 3 in a row!
1  =  Matt Nunn  Taurus 88 (5) PB  3 in a row!
1  17  Simon Rutter  Capricorn 87 (4) PB
146
 3 in a row!
1  18  Steph Coughlan  Pisces 86 (4) PB
139
 2 in a row!
1  19  Chris Green  Leo 85 (5) PB
92
 3 in a row!
1  20  Peter Smyth  Gemini 83 (5) PB
156
 2 in a row!
1  21  Geoff Marshall  Leo 82 (5) PB  3 in a row!
1  =  Matt Foulkes  Leo 82 (5) PB
140
 2 in a row!
1  23  Veronica White  Aquarius 74 (5) PB
135
 3 in a row!
10  24  Tony Wilson  Aries 67 (4) PB
116
 
1  25  Antony Brown  Libra 60 (3) PB
121
 
1  =  Tom White  Gemini 60 (3) PB
121
 
3  27  Jen Fegan  Leo 55 (3) PB  
3  28  Laz Kay  Libra 51 (4) PB
68
 
3  29  Håkan Wolgé  Taurus 46 (3) PB
162
 
5  30  Matthew Frost  Aries 45 (4) PB
172
 
5  31  Sean White  Leo 38 (2) PB
163
 
4  32  Emma Tuckey  Aries 34 (3) PB
81
 
4  33  Andrew Dale  Pisces 32 (2) PB
131
 
1  34  Cassie Laughlin  Virgo 21 (2) PB
111
 
1  35  Damian Cook  Libra 21 (1) PB
139
 
1  36  Rosie Wallbank  Gemini 15 (1) PB
91
 
   37  Douglas Cameron  Taurus 3 (1) PB
126
 
   38  Mike Krotosky  Cancer 2 (1) PB
80
 
   39  Gagandeep Singh Bharij  Cancer -1 (0) PB
57
 

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  1 Leo  Leo 6 players 220 (26)   +58
1  2 Aries  Aries 6 players 217 (27)   +44
   3 Taurus  Taurus 5 players 201 (21)   +50
   4 Gemini  Gemini 5 players 190 (21)   +50
   5 Cancer  Cancer 4 players 168 (12)   +36
   6 Pisces  Pisces 3 players 160 (11)   +36
1  7 Libra  Libra 4 players 158 (13)   +44
1  8 Aquarius  Aquarius 2 players 153 (11)   +36
   9 Sagittarius  Sagittarius 1 player 115 (6)   +24
   10 Scorpio  Scorpio 1 player 105 (6)   +24
   11 Capricorn  Capricorn 1 player 87 (4)   +24
   12 Virgo  Virgo 1 player 21 (2)   

LATEST COMPETITION UPDATES: RSS feed Follow AdventCC on Twitter

08:04:16, Sun 24th Dec Twenty-four points are awarded to Matt F, Veronica W, Antony B, Tom W, Jen F, Laz K, HÃ¥kan W and Sean W
08:04:16, Sun 24th Dec Twenty-four points are awarded to Andrew C, James L, Matt N, Simon R, Steph C, Chris G, Peter S and Geoff M
08:04:16, Sun 24th Dec Twenty-four points are awarded to Nigel W, Lorna B, Ross T, Ben P, Mark C, Simon G and Nina D
08:04:16, Sun 24th Dec Twenty-four points are awarded to Eleda J, Joseph P, Samantha S, Chris D, Neil B and Kevin B
08:04:16, Sun 24th Dec Door 24 opened, picture shows santa
04:35:22, Sun 24th Dec Sean White's guess has been changed
19:47:00, Sat 23rd Dec Nina Dale's guess has been changed
19:19:29, Sat 23rd Dec James Laughlin's guess has been changed
19:03:59, Sat 23rd Dec Eleda Johnson's guess has been changed
18:03:08, Sat 23rd Dec Tom White's guess has been changed

Items uncovered so far:

  1 Advent Calendar 2 Sleigh 3 Snowflake 4 Jumper 5 Reindeer 6 Christmas Tree  
               
  7 Snow 8 Star 9 Snowglobe 10 Shooting Star 11 Bauble 12 Stocking  
               
  13 Santa Hat 14 Firework 15 Jack-in-a-box 16 Christmas Card 17 Bell 18 Moustache  
               
  19 Snowman 20 Gift 21 Musical Note 22 Trumpet 23 Cracker 24 Santa  
               

Decisions

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

Random Stats

 Number of players: 39
 Number of players who can/cannot still win: 1 / 38
 Number of players who have been invited but are yet to play: 6 e.g. Heather Haslam. Why, Heather, 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...