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!

Current Standings
Pos Player / Team Score
   1  Chris Green  Leo 124½ (8) PB
   2  Matt Nunn  Taurus 98 (6) PB
   3  Samantha Scrivin  Sagittarius 96 (6) PB
183
   4  Sean White  Leo 93½ (6) PB
163
   5  Nigel White  Pisces 91½ (6) PB
133
   6  Simon Gosney  Gemini 83 (5) PB
106
   7  Neil Blake  Aries 79 (5) PB
157
   8  Steph Coughlan  Pisces 79 (5) PB
139
   9  Mark Coughlan  Taurus 77½ (5) PB
123
   10  Joseph Palmer  Aquarius 77½ (4) PB
116
   11  Veronica White  Aquarius 73 (4) PB
135
   12  James Laughlin  Aries 71 (5) PB
174
   13  Håkan Wolgé  Taurus 70½ (5) PB
162
   14  miniscriv   Pisces 69½ (4) PB
79
   15  Nina Dale  Gemini 69 (4) PB
93
   16  Emma Tuckey  Aries 66½ (4) PB
81
   17  Lorna Blake  Scorpio 63 (4) PB
105
   18  Tony Wilson  Aries 62½ (4) PB
116
   19  Ross Turnbull  Libra 62½ (4) PB
109
   20  Kevin Brown  Taurus 59½ (4) PB
108
   21  Ben Procter  Cancer 58½ (4) PB
164
   22  Andrew Chilcraft  Aries 57½ (4) PB
131
   23  Douglas Cameron  Taurus 52 (3) PB
126
   24  Edward Haslam  Leo 49 (3) PB
123
   25  Antony Brown  Libra 48 (3) PB
121
   26  Simon Rutter  Capricorn 47 (3) PB
146
   27  Cassie Laughlin  Virgo 46 (3) PB
111
   28  Chris Davey  Leo 43½ (3) PB
110
   29  Tom White  Gemini 43½ (3) PB
121
   30  Gagandeep Singh Bharij  Cancer 36½ (2) PB
57
   31  Glen Bryant  Virgo 29 (2) PB
61
   32  Andrew Dale  Pisces 22 (1) PB
131
   33  Jen Fegan  Leo 20 (1) PB
55
   34  Laz Kay  Libra 17 (1) PB
68
   35  Matthew Frost  Aries 16½ (1) PB
172
   36  Peter Smyth  Gemini 13 (1) PB
156
   =  Eleda Johnson  Cancer 13 (1) PB
117

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 Leo  Leo 5 players 203 (21)   
   2 Taurus  Taurus 5 players 186 (23)   
   3 Aries  Aries 6 players 167½ (23)   
   4 Pisces  Pisces 4 players 160 (16)   
   5 Gemini  Gemini 4 players 135½ (13)   
   6 Aquarius  Aquarius 2 players 114 (8)   
   7 Sagittarius  Sagittarius 1 player 96 (6)   
   8 Libra  Libra 3 players 92½ (8)   
   9 Cancer  Cancer 3 players 81½ (7)   
   10 Scorpio  Scorpio 1 player 63 (4)   
   11 Virgo  Virgo 2 players 60½ (5)   
   12 Capricorn  Capricorn 1 player 47 (3)   

LATEST COMPETITION UPDATES: RSS feed

19:49:23, Wed 24th Dec Twelve and a half points are awarded to Chris G, Matt N, Samantha S, Sean W, Nigel W, Simon G, Neil B, Steph C, Mark C, Veronica W, James L, Håkan W, Emma T, Lorna B, Tony W, Ross T, Kevin B, Ben P, Andrew C, Edward H, Antony B, Simon R, Cassie L, Chris D, Tom W and Glen B
19:49:23, Wed 24th Dec Door 24 opened, picture shows a gift
11:08:59, Wed 24th Dec Sean White's guess has been changed
09:35:58, Wed 24th Dec Mark Coughlan's guess has been changed
09:20:34, Wed 24th Dec Ben Procter's guess has been changed
08:44:45, Wed 24th Dec Antony Brown's guess has been changed
08:09:14, Wed 24th Dec Chris Davey's guess has been changed
08:05:26, Wed 24th Dec Håkan Wolgé's guess has been changed
07:58:06, Wed 24th Dec Glen Bryant's guess has been changed
21:28:35, Tue 23rd Dec Eleda Johnson's guess has been changed

Items uncovered so far:

  1 Pudding 2 Stocking 3 Star 4 Bauble 5 Teddy 6 Woolly Hat  
               
  7 Jingle Bell 8 Snowman 9 Santa Hat
&
Socks
10 Candy Cane 11 Robin 12 Gingerbread Tree  
               
  13 Shrub 14 Xmas Tree 15 Dove 16 Candle
&
Holly
17 Cracker 18 Gloves  
               
  19 Snowflake 20 Holly 21 Mistletoe 22 Crown 23 Scarf 24 Gift  
               

Decisions

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

Random Stats

 Number of players: 37
 Number of players who can/cannot still win: 1 / 36
 Number of players who have been invited but are yet to play: 4 e.g. Rosie Wallbank. Why, Rosie, why? :-(
 Number of points remaining:

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...