The Countdown
I’ll start with a confession.
In over 50 years of solving jigsaw puzzles, I had never, until last year, heard of something called an “Advent puzzle.” November of 2023 was the first time one of these came to my attention, when it showed up in my house as a present from my wife. She bought it as a novelty, and its slower pace was definitely a change from my usual “get this finished quickly” style. So, starting on Dec 1 and for the following 23 days, I worked my way through the box, one 42 piece puzzle at a time. At the end, I connected all of these small images and had a single 1008 piece picture.
Since then, I’ve shopped around and looked at various styles of Advent puzzles. Some, like my first, bring 24 images together to form one bigger picture. Some have only 12 small puzzles, rather than 24, to celebrate the Twelve Days of Christmas. And others, like the two I’m featuring today, have 24 individual puzzles, each part of a theme, but meant to stand alone. In this style, each day’s puzzle has a full border, and each picture is complete in itself.
This year I had an opportunity to preview puzzles from Jumbo, a new entrant in the Advent market. Jumbo is known in the jigsaw world primarily for puzzles featuring the work of artist Jan Van Haasteren, and for their innovative Wasgij line. Here, they’ve brought both of those signature styles into the world of Advent puzzling.
On a coin flip, I chose to do the Van Haasteren puzzles first. As should be expected, each of the 24 images features the crowded scenes, visual jokes, and absurd situations the artist is known for. While Van Haasteren did not ink these puzzles himself, they come from artist Dick Heins, a long-time member of Studio Jan Van Haasteren whose style is a spot-on match. Heins joined Van Haasteren in 2013, and has since been creating art under the Studio Van Haasteren name.
Under the front panel of the box, I saw the exterior of an apartment building, with each of its 24 windows labeled with a number. Upon pulling the Day 1 puzzle out, I was happy to see it packaged in a small, resealable plastic bag – an important detail, as it allows for proper storage and the opportunity to do the puzzles year after year. The pieces of the puzzle are thick, have a great feel, and hook together securely with no false fits. Top notch quality! As a bonus, each day’s pieces have a symbol on the back, making it easy to group them if they ever get jumbled.
As for the actual puzzling,there are no pictures to guide the solve. The fun is in assembling each puzzle without a guide, to see what wackiness is going on BEHIND the drawn shades of the window. Working through the days of the month I spotted a few recurring gags, some characters that made more than one appearance, and an overall theme of a crazy Christmas filled with many surprises. Here’s my shot of all 24 puzzles, done and displayed. Don’t look too closely if you don’t want spoilers.
Moving on to the Wasgij puzzle, it wasn’t hard to tell it was also from Jumbo. As with the first, the pieces here were high quality, they were packaged individually in resealable bags, and they gave absolutely no clue as to what the finished images would look like. That last is no surprise, though, as that’s exactly what the Wasgij line was designed for! Rather than matching the picture on the box, the day-by-day puzzles were scenes of what was happening BELOW Santa and his sleigh.
The images in the Wasgij Advent were created by Paul Gibbs, one of several artists in the Wasgij stable. I loved the clarity in these puzzles, and the humor that ranged from traditional giggles (a cat stealing a bone meant as a gift to a dog), to more subtle laughs (sheep wearing woolen scarves and hats). As before, I won’t spoil your fun with images of the finished puzzles - just be careful with the picture below. A glance reveals nothing; just don’t zoom in.
I’m sure it’s obvious I didn’t solve these exactly as intended. For one, I did them in October! I also didn’t stick to one puzzle per day. I did, however, have fun doing them and studying all the Christmas Crazy going on in the pictures. If you’re a fan of Advent calendars, or Advent anything, these puzzles would be a fun addition to your holidays.
Happy Puzzling.
Phil (aka Puzzle Buster)