The Advent Calendar Challenge 
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Hello and welcome to the 2025 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 2024, 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 made another tweak to the scoring system. Instead of running from 24 points for a correct guess on day 1 all the way down to 1 point for a correct guess on day 24, the points on offer now only decreases by ½ a point each day, meaning there are 12½ points available on Christmas Eve (an increase of 11½) and 99 available in the last week (an increase of 72). Hopefully this strikes a decent balance between rewarding the guesses correctly and keeping it competitive longer. We'll see!

Good Luck!

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guess:
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Current Standings
Pos Player / Team  Current Guess  Score
   1  Joseph Palmer  Aquarius   pudding   24 (1) PB
116
   =  Neil Blake  Aries  gloves  24 (1) PB
157
2  3  James Laughlin  Aries  woolly hat  0 (0) PB
174
2  =  Laz Kay  Libra  dove  0 (0) PB
68
2  =  Samantha Scrivin  Sagittarius  candy cane  0 (0) PB
183
2  =  Lorna Blake  Scorpio  jingle bell  0 (0) PB
105
2  =  miniscriv   Pisces  santa hat  0 (0) PB
79
2  =  Matthew Frost  Aries  candle  0 (0) PB
172
2  =  Chris Green  Leo  robin  0 (0) PB
92
2  =  Antony Brown  Libra  bauble  0 (0) PB
121
2  =  Simon Rutter  Capricorn  woolly hat  0 (0) PB
146
2  =  Nina Dale  Gemini  teddy  0 (0) PB
93
2  =  Håkan Wolgé  Taurus  holly  0 (0) PB
162
2  =  Gagandeep Singh Bharij  Cancer  bauble  0 (0) PB
57
2  =  Edward Haslam  Leo  gingerbread tree  0 (0) PB
123
2  =  Simon Gosney  Gemini  bauble  0 (0) PB
106
2  =  Emma Tuckey  Aries  bauble  0 (0) PB
81
2  =  Nigel White  Pisces  candy cane  0 (0) PB
133
2  =  Ross Turnbull  Libra  jingle bell  0 (0) PB
109
2  =  Glen Bryant  Virgo  candy cane  0 (0) PB
61
2  =  Tom White  Gemini  cracker  0 (0) PB
121
2  =  Matt Nunn  Taurus  bauble  0 (0) PB
88
2  =  Ben Procter  Cancer  holly  0 (0) PB
164
2  =  Veronica White  Aquarius  teddy  0 (0) PB
135
2  =  Chris Davey  Leo  shrub  0 (0) PB
110
2  =  Andrew Chilcraft  Aries  gingerbread tree  0 (0) PB
131
2  =  Andrew Dale  Pisces  teddy  0 (0) PB
131
2  =  Cassie Laughlin  Virgo  robin  0 (0) PB
111
2  =  Douglas Cameron  Taurus  jingle bell  0 (0) PB
126
2  =  Kevin Brown  Taurus  dove  0 (0) PB
108
2  =  Jen Fegan  Leo  santa hat  0 (0) PB
55
2  =  Tony Wilson  Aries  stocking  0 (0) PB
116
2  =  Steph Coughlan  Pisces  socks  0 (0) PB
139
2  =  Peter Smyth  Gemini  holly  0 (0) PB
156
2  =  Mark Coughlan  Taurus  bauble  0 (0) PB
123
2  =  Sean White  Leo  teddy  0 (0) PB
163

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 Aquarius  Aquarius 2 players 24 (1)   +24
   = Aries  Aries 6 players 24 (1)   +24
2  3 Libra  Libra 3 players 0 (0)   
2  = Sagittarius  Sagittarius 1 player 0 (0)   
2  = Scorpio  Scorpio 1 player 0 (0)   
2  = Pisces  Pisces 4 players 0 (0)   
2  = Leo  Leo 5 players 0 (0)   
2  = Capricorn  Capricorn 1 player 0 (0)   
2  = Gemini  Gemini 4 players 0 (0)   
2  = Taurus  Taurus 5 players 0 (0)   
2  = Cancer  Cancer 2 players 0 (0)   
2  = Virgo  Virgo 2 players 0 (0)   

LATEST COMPETITION UPDATES: RSS feed

00:05:11, Tue 2nd Dec Sean White's guess has been changed to 'teddy'
19:27:15, Mon 1st Dec Glen Bryant's guess has been changed to 'candy cane'
17:07:55, Mon 1st Dec Neil Blake's guess has been changed to 'gloves'
16:17:51, Mon 1st Dec Twenty-four points are awarded to Joseph P and Neil B
16:17:51, Mon 1st Dec Door 1 opened, picture shows a pudding
08:24:33, Mon 1st Dec Ben Procter's guess has been changed to 'holly'
23:21:32, Sun 30th Nov Mark Coughlan's guess has been changed to 'bauble'
22:22:45, Sun 30th Nov Peter Smyth's guess has been changed to 'holly'
22:10:02, Sun 30th Nov Steph Coughlan's guess has been changed to 'socks'
21:55:41, Sun 30th Nov Tony Wilson's guess has been changed to 'stocking'

Items uncovered so far:

  1 Pudding  
   

Decisions

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

Random Stats

 Number of players: 36
 Number of players who can/cannot still win: 36 / 0
 Number of players who have been invited but are yet to play: 5 e.g. Rosie Wallbank. Why, Rosie, why? :-(
 Number of points remaining: 414

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...