December 2023 - Over the Garden Wall

Tap on any hint box to view it.

Location: The Very Worst Frog Name

All frogs should be valid words after a hop, and each frog only trades ONE letter with its leapfrog partner.
Note that only the leaping frog can be used in the next pairing. Like in the example, only the ROPE frog can pair with WELT, and not the HEED frog (he's jumped in the water and is now out of play)
Not sure where to start? Try MULCH/SONAR, LOSER/NAVAL, PROM/HARP and REAL/CALM as your first pairings in the top 4 grids.
Look for the lilypads with flowers on them to determine which spaces your final frog for each puzzle will end up at (and which word forms part of the solution).
PARTIAL SOLUTION: The solutions for the top 4 grids are MOOSE, BOARD, DRIP and ROAM
Not sure where to start on the bottom left puzzle? You can either begin with PLUCK/CAUSE or PEACE/GRAPH.
Not sure where to start on the bottom right puzzle? Here, the only option is to begin with DRIP/TOWN.
TANK/LEAD do not jump over each other on the bottom right puzzle.
The final two frogs names are MORSE TOAD

Start by solving as many of the clues as you can.
Have a look in the wordsearch for anything similar to the clue answers. This is a standard wordsearch where words appear in a straight line horizontally, vertically or diagonally.
Funny, none of the clue answers seem to appear in the grid! But do you see any words in the grid that look similar to your clue answers?
The flavor text references “metaS, Locks, and gYms”. Do you see any connection between the words in the puzzle grid and your clue answers?
The words “metaS, Locks, and gYms” are all just one letter away from "metaL, Rocks, and gEms". That should help you connect your clue answers to the words in the puzzle grid.
Each clue answer is one letter off of a rock word in the grid.
The clue answer letters that undergo a change in the wordsearch grid are used for your final extraction.
The letters in each clue that are different from the rock word spell out BERYL ORE

Start by identifying some of the pictures, you might notice each pair of pictures has “a lot in common”.
Place a letter in each of the circles so that Quincy and the ghost can “view things differently”
Quincy's word is depicted in the plain picture frame on the right
Try to imagine Quincy or the ghost’s perspective as they view the letters. The two of them read words from left to right.
Note that neither Quincy nor the ghost can see through obstacles within the rooms.
The word pairs are EARTH/HEART, STAR/TASER, NAIL/SNAIL, NORTH/THORN, LEMON/GNOME, BOWL/ELBOW, TABLE/BALE, MATCH/WATCH, MONKEY/MONEY
Quincy begins his quest in the top left room of the house. Make sure you follow the stairs down, and the arrows, to get the final answer!
The boxed letters in exit path order spell out TEA WORTHY

Try the practice puzzle for a warm-up and a hint on what to do with the big puzzle.
If you don’t know where to place the next number in the sequence, skip ahead to later numbers and come back after. It's usually easiest to start with paths where only one number is missing in a sequence (e.g., try placing the missing 2, since you already know where 1 and 3 are in the grid).
Really stuck? The seventh column should include the numbers 43/44/8/61/60/53/42/7 from top to bottom.
Still not seeing it? The seventh row should read 5/41/47/37/33/20/42/38 from left to right.
Once your grid is complete, you'll need to extract letters for your answer. Not sure how to interpret 2-6? It's not a math problem. Try taking a step back and looking at the "big picture".
You don’t need semaphore here.
Trace a path between the number ranges listed below the blanks to extract your answer.
The path from 2 to 6 looks a bit like an R, doesn't it?
Tracing each range of numbers at the bottom draws a letter, spelling ROUNDABOUT

This is a battleship puzzle.
Try to narrow down the boat possibilities by crossing out spaces where you know there can’t be a boat, like rows and columns with a 0, and spaces next to boats.
Stuck? The tugboats appear horizontally in the third and sixth rows in the top right puzzle, horizontally in the first and third rows in the bottom left puzzle, and horizontally/vertically in the first row/second column in the bottom right puzzle.
Once you’ve solved all the grids, find the “Four Frogland Ferries” on the letter grid below. The first one has been done as an example.
Use all the letters, left to right demarcated by the frogland ferries to extract your answer. Include the example ferry that is included in the grid. Use all letters; no need to duplicate or exclude letters that are crossed twice.
Reading all letters at ferry positions spells CHILD WITHIN.

Each grid has two rows, one for the puzzle answer, and one for a new Beast answer you need to discover by revisiting the solved puzzles.
Revisit Rock Facts and do a Caesar shift on the letters that are not a part of any rock-word.
Go to the Endicott Mansion and look through the windows in order left to right
Check out Wander the Woods and use semaphore at the numbered positions given. Don't focus on where the arrow pointers end in the grid; focus instead on how the path ENTERS the signposts before changing directions.
Re-map the rowboats on the Frogland Ferry grid.
Beasts are hiding in each of your Beast answers, can you find them?
Every Beast answer has two hidden animals, find those!
Remove the beasts and the corresponding letters in your answers and read the remaining letters
Use the letters from the original answers in order to spell BLOWOUT WIN.

Start by cutting out the puzzle pieces.
Try to arrange the pieces into a 6x6 grid.
The lines should form a single path through the full grid.
Try to read through the maze and figure out which letters the bird icons represent.
Starting at Q, the maze spells out 8 birds, each with one letter replaced by a bird icon.
The bird letters, in order, read UNBURDEN.

Answers to the months' puzzles represent the names of the stores in this puzzle. Each store name appears on the left and the right side of the puzzle.
Look for words in each store name that could have more than one meaning. For example, the word "season" in "'tis the season" could refer to a time of year, or something you add to food to give it more flavor.
Stuck? The first six answers on the left are "'tis the season", "turn off and on", "see compact atoms", "the final straw", "pizzazz" and "gold medals". The first six answers on the right are "see compact atoms", "long rest", "'tis the season", "gold medals", "unfazed guard" and "perfect ten".
Once you've figured out the connections, you'll need to extract your final answer. You'll use the letters that are crossed by the lines betweeen the pairs - but what order should you read the letters in?
Try reading the letters chronologically (based on the order you encountered the store names (i.e., puzzle answers) this year).
That means follow the Jan-Feb-Mar-etc. order that you can see in the answers listed above the puzzles.
Reading the crossed letters from Jan-Dec spells out HAPPY ENTREPRENEW YEAR.