2025 Winter Holiday Hunt

We're in the midst of the winter holiday season, and are hosting our second annual Winter Holiday Hunt!

This hunt is meant to celebrate the season of light, and the holidays it brings. We wish all our members a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and an entertaining hunt!

The object of the game is to solve our clues (in verse!) and go to the LibraryThing page each clue is talking about.

Go HERE for the hunt.

You have a little more than three weeks—until Tuesday January 6th at 11.59 pm Eastern Time—to find all the evergreen trees hidden around the site and gather them all together into one stand.

Use this thread to brag, ask for and give hints, etc.

We will be awarding profile badges to anyone who finds at least two evergreen trees, and anyone who finds all fifteen will be entered into a drawing for a LibraryThing prize.

Helpful tips

Please, use the spoiler tag when posting hints or suggestions. Here's how:

To use the spoiler tag, type the following before whatever you'd like to hide:

<spoiler>

And this, at the end of what's hidden:

</spoiler>

Ha! First time I've got one (no. 14) before I even finished reading the page!

>2 haydninvienna: 🙂👍🏻 Happy hunting!

Yay, thanks for another fun LibraryThing!

Quiet in here ... where is everybody?

I'm here!
I'll start on the hunt later today, on my morning break (it's 8:20 AM where I live :-))

>5 haydninvienna: I found most of them, missing 3, 8, 10 and 14 so far. 8:25 AM here so I must be in the same time zone as >6 Dilara86:. I'll give the hunt a rest for now.

I have 11 out of 15: still need 6, 9, 12 and 15. I think I know what the last 3 of those are, but finding the right page is another matter. Any hints would be appreciated.

>8 haydninvienna: A hint for #15 you are looking for a tag. If you want a more precise hint take a look at the tags used by Tim Spaldings son. And more help: spell it a bit different.

>7 bnielsen: Central European Time :-)

Aaand I'm already back because I am waiting for technical problems to be resolved at work...

>8 haydninvienna: Those four are virtually the only ones I found so far!
#6: You want to find the MDS classification page, and navigate from "2 - Religion" to "Other Religions", and down to the name of the festival.
#9: It's a tag.
#12: Look for a list.
#15: It's a tag and you want to spell the word without the accents used in the original language.

>7 bnielsen: I found #3 by googling "fairytale retelling" and "Snow White"

2
PLEASE HELP

>12 rithram: Please don't shout.

Help please with 8 and 14. Merry Christmas x

>11 Dilara86: Thanks. That helped!

>9 bnielsen: >10 Dilara86: Thanks, got 15 after a bit of fiddling with the spelling!

>14 tina1969: I found 8 by googling authors with those initials! Quite a well known writer.

ETA 14: The author has also written a book whose title is also the name of a Renaissance writer on architecture.

Happy whatever-you-celebrate to you too.

>17 haydninvienna: thank you but still don't get it x

>18 tina1969: You're looking for the title of the latest book by an English woman writer who wrote a very well known book about 2 magicians (whose names are the title of that book) and a fairy about 20 years ago. (This clue was the first one I got because I recognised the book from Zeph's description.)

And while I'm here, thanks to LT staff for this hunt, and special thanks to @ConceptDawg for the goldfinch.

>19 haydninvienna: a lot of googling now got it. Thank you xx just still can't get 8

>19 haydninvienna: I think you should remember to put <spoiler> tags around that.

i took the hint that there's been no hints for #10, i.e. it should be rather easy to find. So now I've found that too :-)

>23 bnielsen: Help? Still nothing for #8 and #10

>24 SandraArdnas: For #10, I did a tagmash of the obvious candidates and ended up with the first book in the correct series, if you don't mind going roundabout.

I am also struggling with 8, which is my last one.

>25 Watry: Well, that finally worked after combining no less than 4 relevant tags

Only #8 remains

as usual, I did not see any popup for the hunt when I opened LT :-(

>14 tina1969: For #8 you have to do under the Common knowledge section

>21 tina1969:, >25 Watry:, >26 SandraArdnas:
#8
You need to find the relevant book series name contains... written by an author whose initials are D.K. first name D, surname K. Look for the protagonist's name people/characters.

>28 DNA.PA:

>14 tina1969: tina1969: For #8 you have to do under the Common knowledge section

This is a clue for #4, not #8

>30 newcrossbooks: the people/characters section is undert Common knowledge...or maybe I'm unable to find it in any other way

>29 newcrossbooks: there are a lot of authors with the intials. This is what I'm struggling with x

I'm stuck with #2, idk where to find the anwser :(

>32 tina1969: is a well-known American author who specializes in thriller and suspense stories

>32 tina1969: For #8 The author in question is probably known more for his other Odd series and he writes in the thriller/horror(supernatural) genre also often includes his middle initial of R in the author name.

>34 DNA.PA: did think it was him but couldn't find a book that fit the clue

>35 AHS-Wolfy: got the author and now two books with a seasonal name. Found the name of the character but can't find the right page x

>37 tina1969: For #8 When I finally realized who the author was I went to the author page, then clicked on the relevant series and then the character whose seasonal name was on the right hand side of the page

>37 tina1969: It's not the books that have the seasonal name, read the clue again. You'll need to find the right series (from the last line of the clue) then choose a book in that series and scroll down to the common knowledge section. Characters are listed there.

>39 AHS-Wolfy: finally got it. Would never have got it without help thank you and merry Christmas

>38 calm: finally got it thank you for your help and merry Christmas

I have all but #10. Could I get a clue or 2 or 3. 🙂

>34 DNA.PA: Thank you, this jogged out the answer.

>33 DNA.PA: for #2 you're looking for a tag, just make sure it's the plural form of the tag

and 1 word! Sheesh

Yay, a new hunt! 🥳🎄

Any hints for #4? It looks so easy, but I can't seem to find the right page.

>45 LaPhenix: YES. One word is a very important point.

>44 perinta: TYSM!

>46 Ennas: For #4 the place where Santa lives. Then use Common Knowledge.

For #10 - the series was first published in 2014 and features the word house in the title, not inn. I only found it by going though a Goodreads' list.

>46 Ennas: you have to do under the Common knowledge section, for places

>49 KikiTuna: & >50 DNA.PA: That worked. Thanks!!

I only have the #14 left, any clue? I have try some authors but looks like I'm loss

>52 DNA.PA: see #19, now with spoiler tags.

For #8, I googled ”author with initials D.K.”, and I found the author on a page ”The Top 40 Famous People with Initials DK”. From there, I was able to go to that author page on LibraryThing, where it was easy to quickly identify the correct book series from the clue. After that, I just had to go to the book page for one of the books in the series, scroll down to the Common Knowledge section, identify the character easily from the clue and click the character’s name.

>49 KikiTuna: Thanks!

For #10 I went to Abigail's LibraryThing Library and searched smuggler I found it by clicking around on the books that came up from the search.

Done! I needed hints for 8 and 14, so thanks very much to everyone who provided them!

Happy whatever-you-celebrate to everyone!

>27 .mau.: I didn't either, as usual.

Stuck on 8,10, 12, & 15. I’ve followed your hints but I’m being thick. 😞

Thanks LT for another fun Hunt and a lovely drawing by @conceptDawg.
Happy Celebration of Your Choice to everyone.

Figured out my own questions. Thank you @conceptdawg for the beautiful goldfinch. @librarything put that bird on something.
This is addictive and I'm only got four so far!

>54 Charon07: Nice. That worked for me. I didn't know the series although I have the books on my shelves, but I'd just picked them up for free and not gotten around to reading them :-)

Done - needed hints for 8 and 14, and am not sure when I got 10, as I'd tried several things which I didn't think had given me the right answer, then it showed up as found. Lots of fun!

I'm stuck on #3 and #15.
On #3, I found a very specific work that (so far?) looks like it should meet all the obvious criteria, but no evergreen tree.
On #15, I'm quite sure of the tradition, but no variants or spoilers (so far) hit it. >9 bnielsen: is intriguing but appears to assume knowledge not in evidence.

Oh, no banner again. :-( I was looking for the SantaThing arrivals thread and found this. Glad I found this, though. And it's nice to have extra time, so hopefully I'll do better than I have on the last few.

>64 jasbro: Yes, you need to know the specific person, I'm hinting at. It's @liamspalding.

>64 jasbro: For #3, the series name is a synonym for moon. Or, try a tagmash with "Snow white" and "fairy tale retelling".

(To search with a tagmash, separate the two tag phrases with a comma and the Tag results will suggest looking at it with a tagmash.)

For a great clue for #15, see user 10Dilara86's post (number 10 on the thread).

I'm just stuck on #14 now!

>68 monnibo: Did you try following the hints in >19 haydninvienna: ?

For #14:
Stalking hint: Take a look at zeph's author cloud https://www.librarything.com/stats/ZephCraven/authorcloud and look for the author there.

>69 bnielsen: Got it at last! Thank you ever so much: this was the only clue I hadn't solved and I was getting quite frustrated.

>70 Dilara86: I think I know that feeling :-) I'm glad you are off the hook now.

Thank you everyone for hints for #8, would never have found it on my own

And @conceptdawg has outdone himself with this goldfinch

Happy holidays everyone

>73 CosmicChance_: For #1, I had to use google. I searched for children’s Christmas book 1902. If you want to avoid google, it’s by the same author as the Oz books.

How do I get use Common Knowledge without having a specific title?

>75 amdial7: Click the magnifying glass in the search box in the top menu bar in the upper right corner, then click “Common Knowledge” in the lefthand pane.

First tree

They found a tag with the authors name on it when they bought a coat to make a film from a famous series

>44 perinta: I've tried every plural tag for #2 and none are it. Any more hints?

>78 athometarheel: for #2, Other famous versions of the answer would be Kirkwood, Burnett, King, Baskin

>78 athometarheel: You're probably overthinking it. One word for these songs, what they are called

I found everything on my own except for #14. I thought I knew that one too, but I must be way off base. Any tips? The ones above has not helped. Thank you.

>80 SandraArdnas: Thanks! I was putting the holiday name in front.

I'm stuck on #14 thought I had it figured out, but nope. Tips anyone?

>66 bnielsen: Excellent - and thank you!
>67 monnibo: Thanks too, but I've tried tagmashes, with a space between "fairy" and "tale" and without it (per >11 Dilara86:). I did find a "fairytale-retelling-snow-white" tag, which took me (improbably?) to Roald Dahl's Revolting Rhymes, and I also found a few combining opportunities. The closest I've come is Snow White: Princess of the Moon - but still no evergreen tree.

ETA: OK! Once I figured out what I was doing wrong with my tagmashes (don't put quotes "" around paired terms), I still found lots of no trees but eventually got there too. Thanks again!

Editing to say it was my brain glitch! I figured out where I was going wrong.

has anyone else experienced a glitch? I have found the correct #12 banner page, but it doesn't register the evergreen tree and cross out the clue on the quiz page.

>83 DebHudon: #14 If you're on the right track which author, it's a short story by her that fits the hunt theme. The last part clued me in who the author is. More direct hint her well-known novel referenced is about two magicians, whose names are the title, also made into a movie

Consolidated hints for clues 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14 & 15 up to this point are now in the LT Treasure Hunts group: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/23170/LT-Treasure-Hunts

General hints and strategies can be found in: https://www.librarything.com/topic/353338

If you didn't get the hunt notification banner you could mention it here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/374753

>76 Charon07: Thank you

no glitch. just me

Still stuck on # 3. Am I looking for a book or a series? I thought I had the right book, and I even checked the series for that book but no evergreen tree!

>86 SandraArdnas: Found it! Yay!

nm on glitch. 'tis a brain glitch. lol

>92 iggabod: a brain glitch indeed . lol

>85 DebHudon:
For anybody having problems with 12 not showing as being collected even though you did it, that should be fixed now.

>90 BookConcierge: For #3, it's a book which is the 4th in a series

>10 Dilara86: Re: #6: You want to find the MDS classification page, and navigate from "2 - Religion" to "Other Religions", and down to the name of the festival. When I click on the name of the festival, there's no tree there. What am I missing?

For #7, I thought I knew "where free books are won" but no banner. I need help. Please and thank you.

>95 AHS-Wolfy: Thanks. That clue did it for me.

I now have all 15 evergreen trees!

>97 amdial7:

Did you go there and find the stories in question? You need to click through to the specific page about that particular offering.

>96 amdial7: So, I tried again to check, and it looks like you only get the evergreen tree if you access the page via the More tab or the Zeitgeist tab. You can't piggyback to it from a book page, if that's what you did? If that wasn't the problem, I'm stumped.

Finally got them all. Very helpful clues in talk. Especially for the convoluted clues for numbers 8 and 15.

>100 Dilara86: I accessed it from the link at the bottom of every page.

>99 paradoxosalpha: {slaps own forehead} thank you for the tip. Found it.

>100 Dilara86: re: #6 Thank you. No idea how but apparently I got it but never did see the evergreen... Weird glitch...

I got them all which much help from your tips. Thank you. What a fun event. I look forward to more of them. Happy Holidays and reading too.

>104 amdial7: Fantastic!

It's just driving me nuts that I can't get #2. I've tried every combination I could think of from what I think could be the answer.

>107 tiffin: You're looking for a single word tag not a two word tag

"You found a evergreen tree!" Oh, that hurts.

>109 Stewartry: "You found a nevergreen tree." FIFY!

I know I am over thinking it, but someone please help me with #7. Nothing is popping up on Early Reviewers :(

I did it! Thanks everyone for your clues! Happy Holidays!

>111 readforlifeFHCPL:

I had that problem at first because my ER page had filtered out certain media and genres.

>108 Aquila:: oh now I feel really dopey. Thanks, Aquila!

>111 readforlifeFHCPL: on that page Early Reviewers, above the Early Reviewers> available now sign, you'll see 3 sections- all formats, all genres, and exclude genres. Select Fiction and Literature genres in the genre section. Then, on that same bar over to the far right, you'll see two boxes; select the box with just the 4 squares to view the books that will appear; you should be able to find the correct book when the books load.

>115 closer: My hero! Thank you!

I just finished! Thank you for creating these hunts! I love doing them.

>114 tiffin: I know because I did exactly the same thing.

>27 .mau.: for those who do not see any popup for the hunt when you opened LT
This always works for me: Turn off your computer. Wait 5 seconds. Reboot, and re-log into Librarything.

My first time here. I only have one Die Hard How do I find these!?!?!?!

>120 RobertaPomMom: There's some hints on approaching the hunts at https://www.librarything.com/topic/353338

I still can't find #12. Last one!

>69 bnielsen: I think that's a clue the usefulness of which will only be evident in hindsight. There must be close to a thousand names there! 😂

>122 cmbohn: For #12, You are looking for a list

I can't remember how you get to curated collections! I have everything but number 12.

ETA: never mind, I got it! Whew.

I have all of them. I appreciate all the hints. Another beautiful drawing. Thanks LT for the wonderful challenges, I always learn so much.

>123 justjim: yes but only a few with a star :-)

Thanks for the hunt. This was fun. A bit easier than the Halloween hunt. I found 11 yesterday in two hours and finished the last four today in an hour. I used the hints on a few of them. Now I have a few more books in my to be read list.

Totally stumped on #12. And I know it's a list.. Still can't find one that fits. What am I missing?

>129 laytonwoman3rd: I found #12 using Lists in Site Search and Christmas as the search term

>130 calm: Thanks, Calm. I feel like what I did should have taken me there, but it didn't. Got it now!

Re:#12 I don’t know what happened or if it’s only me, the list in question was’t there when I first visited there. I kept going back to search, and it just popped up for me! Maybe I wasn’t looking, or overlooked it? Anyway I get them all.

>127 bnielsen: The stars, Boss! The stars! I had failed to consider the stars and within seconds I have my final tree. Thank you, and huge thanks to LT staff who continue to put these together.

All the very best of the book-giving season to all Thingamabrarians. xox

For #9, I've gone with Albanian and Ancient Roman rituals, but I'm apparently missing something. Can anyone give me a clue?

>134 prosfilaes: for #9, I just googled pagan winter tradition, and got a word that I didn't realize was a pagan tradition, lol. I looked for the tag. I think you are overthinking it with Albanian and Ancient Roman rituals.

>135 raidergirl3: Thanks!

>80 SandraArdnas: Thank you. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I didn't even need the spoiler. It was a lightbulb moment. It finally came on! 💡🤣

I have solved 13 puzzles so far. Missing 8, 11 --> for me these hunts are too American for me (Norway). So all in all I am happy with the 13 puzzles I've solved, which is a lot better than just finding solutions to 1-2. :)

that's all she wrote

thanks for another fun hunt! Now I gotta finish writing holiday cards lol

Wow, what a great hunt. I really surprised myself on some of the clues. I was completely stumped on 4 of the clues and greatly appreciated the help from a few hints.

>1 AbigailAdams26: this is such a nice idea, thank you for hosting these. Perhaps one day I could contribute a hint poem :)

>65 LibraryCin: Same here. I had never Dismissed the hunt banners because I saw all the messages saying if you did that you never got the banner again. But the problem was supposed to have been solved a few months ago. Then the hunt banner never went away after the Halloween hunt, so I finally dismissed it. And now I have not gotten a banner for this hunt. I only knew it was on from reading the State of the Thing newsletter. So it looks like the banner problem is back. Can someone fix it for good?

This is the first scavenger hunt where I've found all the clues!! Such fun! Thanks so much to everyone who provided hints, I wouldn't have finished without y'all!

>142 atozgrl: I still had the banner for a long time after many reported not seeing it. And I always dismissed it. Until a few hunts ago and it stopped appearing for me. Except once (probably when they thought it was fixed). But the couple of hunts since, it hasn't appeared again.

Thanks for all the help! The clues were great - all of you are so kind to help us!!! Happy Holidays to all.

I guessed #9 right immediately... well, almost ... it's a compound word and it took a minute to realize you need only the first part of the word

>138 kirstenlund: I think you did great and I am sure you can get more. You still have time. I have to always use hints on some.

>147 mnleona: Thanks, but 8, 11 seem impossible for me to solve. I have tried several times without getting any closer to a solution. I leave the last puzzles unsolved - too American for me (Norway)

>148 kirstenlund: 2 is the easiest one, unless you're not familiar with the word in English.

We can also provide more clues if you wish for all of them. I'm often unfamiliar not only with some US books, but with entire genres, but I eventually stumble upon them with hints

Thanks to everyone for a great hunt for the holidays!

Hello. Thanks for all the precious hints, there are entries I could have never ever solved without your contribution. So, I did find all the evergreen trees hidden around the site and I gather them all together into one stand, and now I give you the clues back as a one big, playable hint https://jigex.com/ozAuk Have fun!

This is the first time I've gotten all of them, thanks to the lovely folks here. Thank you @conceptdawg for the beautiful bird and to @humouress for the consolidation!

>138 kirstenlund: for #2, it is the English word for Julesanger, I think --- if Google Translate and my meager familiarity with nordic languages didn't lead me astray.

>151 PovesteaPreferata:
Thank You! What a fun bonus!

>153 rebcamuse: Thanks. "Julesanger" worked, but the things is I've tried that before and nothing happened.

>151 PovesteaPreferata: Oh, that was an extra bit of fun! Thank you!

>9 bnielsen: Who on Earth is Tim Spalding's son?

>157 pixie-rings: See >66 bnielsen: :-)

>158 bnielsen: Thank you kindly

Woo Hoo and they are all found before Xmas.

Yay Me.

A big thankyou to all who gave hints - especially >69 bnielsen:

I was lucky enough to find the book after only a couple of grabs at that author cloud.

Cheers

>151 PovesteaPreferata:

Wow, thank you, PovesteaPreferata! It is such a fun surprise. I love the puzzle 🧩 !

>151 PovesteaPreferata: Thank you for the puzzle “hints”!

>151 PovesteaPreferata: Thanks for the jigsaw! What a fun way to get some help with the clues.

@seeword @Aquila @Yamanekotei @Charon07 @curious.incident → you welcome, glad you like it, I had a great time here too, see you all in the final drawing of prizes!

Thank you for another fun treasure hunt! I found all of the trees. For some reason, #12 was the most difficult for me, but I finally figured it out. Happy holidays!

>151 PovesteaPreferata: Thank you for putting that together! As others have said, a lovely little bonus.

>141 Rakushun: It's my pleasure! We have a lot of fun putting these together, and hope the members have fun playing. I'll keep the idea of a member-contribution hunt in mind!

>151 PovesteaPreferata: That was very cool! thanks for sharing with us

>28 DNA.PA: Literally clicked everything under common knowledge and nothing?

Yay! I got all 15!

>151 PovesteaPreferata: Thank you for the puzzle! That was so much fun and I was able to get my last three trees thanks to you!

Yay!! I got them all!!

>9 bnielsen: thank you so much for the hints for #15 -- I still haven't got it but now I have a better idea where to look!

>151 PovesteaPreferata: What a fun puzzle! Thanks.

Just started my third hunt in a row. Amazing goldfinch. Those illustrations are always something. Have found three of those evergreen trees so far.

@AbigailAdams26 → big THANKS to you in the first place for creating this wonderful hunt!
@raidergirl3 @bkjake @BookConcierge → thank you too, I'm glad you like it!

>115 closer: Thanks so much! That did it for me!

>151 PovesteaPreferata: Awesome. Thanks!

>151 PovesteaPreferata: Thanks for the jigsaw puzzle, I have just done it on a long, lonely Christmas Day. It took me an hour and 45 minutes (in between cat amusement duties and pouring the occasional glass of wine). It also took me far, far too long to realise that I could make use of the little numbers!

Time well wasted. 😂

@bnielsen @justjim thank you, too!

for all those who finished LT MERRY hunt
and don't wanna leave this XMAS fun amount,
another beautiful clue (big as a thank you!)
has shattered in pieces, with glee
go, guess it and https://jigex.com/vTUUL

>180 PovesteaPreferata:
Thank you again PovesteaPreferata, for another puzzle. (And a riddle:-D)
It’s beautiful 😍 as always.

>181 Yamanekotei: I'll second that. Fun way to lay a jigsaw puzzle.

>180 PovesteaPreferata: Thank you for the jigsaw puzzles! I had so much fun solving them.

I love LT Treasure Hunts! I managed to find all 15, with much help from the many lovely folks who contributed clues and hints. Happy Holidays fellow LibraryThing peeps, and especially to the LT Staff who put this all together!

>183 PawsforThought:

No, don’t thank me for the jigsaw puzzles. It’s @PovesteaPreferata who made them.

Happy Holidays (and a new year) to all LibraryThingers and to the LT staff.

>185 Yamanekotei: Thanks for the correction, I simply hit the wrong digit on the keyboard!

>151 PovesteaPreferata: Thank you, this was super fun to come and do when I got stumped on a few! Also let me finish out my stand of trees. ^.^

Found them all even #15 which I don't know how I discovered it! Must of clicked on something right;). Thank you for the fun LT and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Happy holidays to LT and all of the folks here, especially those who gave clues to #8, #10, & #14! I would never have finished this hunt without your clues.

Salutations! Thank you for such a fun and amusing scavenger hunt! I had a quite enjoyable time during it, and have found all fifteen trees! Special thanks to those of you who gave hints, and a late Merry Christmas to all!

Done!! Needed lots of help on #14 and went down the wrong path on a few others, but finished in a little over an hour altogether, so not bad . . . Though I like the hunts better when I get to the end and have found several books I want to read . . . not this time . . . so back to this year's collection of Christmas Mysteries :).
Happy Holidays!

>180 PovesteaPreferata:
Thanks so much for the jigsaw puzzle!

>189 TempleCat: LOL! These are the three I still need to come back to!

>193 LibraryCin: You can do it. Good luck.

>19 haydninvienna: Thank you, would never have got that without your help!

>35 AHS-Wolfy: And also thank you for this - I'd never've got #8 without your help

>194 mnleona: Thanks! I found 8 yesterday.

I like having this extended period of time to do the hunt, as I often only spend 5 or 10 minutes before I have other things I need to get done.

So after the initial go-through, I might only spend a short time trying to find one or two more, before coming back the next day.

>1 AbigailAdams26: Once again that artwork is spectacular.

@Yamanekotei @bnielsen @PawsforThought @Kalira @LucindaLibri
thank you too, glad you like it!

>67 monnibo: thank you—finally got #3! I was so far off, looking at a different book and series that appeared to match the clue perfectly. Very tricky, that one.

OMG ~ I feel so dumb. Ive only got one tree!! :( I cant even understand the spoilers let alone the clues. This is my first time playing!! Happy New Year everybody.

Consolidated hints for clues 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14 & 15 up to this point are in the LT Treasure Hunts group: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/23170/LT-Treasure-Hunts

General hints and strategies can be found in: https://www.librarything.com/topic/353338

If you didn't get the hunt notification banner you could mention it here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/374753

Hope everyone had a few festive and amicable days and is about to be ready for the upcoming year. So far I got ten more evergreens. Looking for the last two: 4 and 10.

Thank you for the hunt and for the European goldfinch artwork!

I finally got all my trees with the help of some of the hints; thanks to all who provided those.

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you the best for the festive season and for 2026.

I still have two to go (10, 14). I need to double check the hints, but also find more time to do so!

>202 RobertaPomMom: If you have time to try again, take a look at the group and maybe start with the general hints and strategies mentioned in >203 humouress:

Hopefully that helps!

Still have 2 left to find: #5 and #13. Somehow I have missed the clues for those. I looked up the works for Beatrice Potter but still did not get the answer for #13. Thank you everyone for all the other hints!

Hello all... Late to the game so I need to be focused.... #3... I must be the dumbest... I have used the clues listed but am not coming up with the connection. I have spent like an hour + on that one... and am still lost. Any help for the beginner is appreciated.

>208 krazy4katz: You are on the right track for #13 search for a term that means a person who makes clothes

#5 A film starring Bruce Willis, set at a party around Christmas but more of an action film

>210 calm: Wow! Thank you very much! I got them both with your hints.

Happy holidays to everyone on LT (users and the magicians who make this place work)
ConceptDawg, thank you for the lovely illustration of a goldfinch.

>209 ChrisK916: This one was extremely difficult for me because it was not the most obvious answer from looking at books related to the clue. The title is a single word which is the name of the season we are in right now. It is a female author that I had never heard of. I don't know about anyone else.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday season! Just finished this treasure hunt...it was a fun one! #12 was hard but I finally got it!

Happy 2026! :)

I'm still stuck on #7. Any help is appreciated! Tried Early Reviewers and some Member Giveaway groups I found but no luck. Don't know of any other pages for free books.

>214 Jamilyn: You're on the right track, but you didn't quite go far enough. You need a specific book--and don't forget to check your excluded genres!

>215 Watry: Thank you! I had indeed forgotten that.

>148 kirstenlund: I (also non-American!) was also stumped by 11, but googled the key words in the clue and then looked for a tag...

>111 readforlifeFHCPL: I’m sure you already found this, but since I didn’t see a response so wanted to give one for anyone looking at #7. It IS on the Early Review page. You just need to select the correct book. The first line of the winter holiday hunt is the give away but for more precise findings, it has “christmas" in the title .

>218 sensanin: I would also add, for anyone searching for #7 in January, you need to go to the Early Reviewers January Batch and then choose December from ‘Previous batches’ on the left sidebar.

Woop, woop! After spending ages scrolling through the January titles for #7, I finally got all 15!

Thank you to the compilers of these puzzles, always fun to do. And to conceptDawg for the European goldfinch watercolour, it’s a beauty!

I found #11 apparently, but didn't notice and kept looking. Is there a way to see where the answer is once I've found it?
I thought it would be cheating to search online in other places than on LibraryThing, but I maybe I'm being too much of a stickler? haha

>220 CosmicChance_: #2 is a tag, with a very general single word term for Christmas songs. I can’t remember if it is plural or not

Hello,
I’ve been working on the hunt for a while now and feel like I might have exhausted all ideas. I can’t seem to find #’s 4 or 8.
8 I might be able to forgive myself for because I have no idea at all. #4 however, has me so frustrated as I think* I’m certain what it is-though exact phrasing I might be missing by a small bit.
For #4 I have tried:
The North Pole, Santa’s workshop, The Arctic, The Arctic Circle, North Pole, North, Santa at the North Pole, North Pole map, and probably a few other similar things… .
I’ve tried looking in Talpa, common knowledge, common knowledge-places, MDS -geography-the Arctic, etc. .
And still no luck!

For #8 I have tried:
initials DK, author with last name beginning with K, books that take place on a Bay, books with Bay in the title, mashtags, talpa, google, and Librarything of course. .

I’m not a huge fan of getting the answer via ‘caving’ and seeking additional hints but I’m sooo close (only two left) and I think I have tried just about as hard as I can now.
Would it be possible for anyone who might care to check what I’ve tried so far and at least let me know if I’m headed in the right direction at any rate?
Thank you much.
Happy New Year!

>223 ImShaunie: #4 You are looking for a Place in Common Knowledge so maybe try your various options there again

for #8 the initials are the authors first and last name, so their surname does begin with K, they are a well known horror author and if you check through their series on librarything you should spot what you are looking for

>223 ImShaunie: My problem is I can't remember where I found them after I've found them! I tried to respond to you because you're on the right track for #4. The answer is the obvious one, really, which you've tried in several variations, but where to find that answer in LibraryThing is what I can't remember!
Oh, I found it again! Here's a hint: look under Common Knowledge >Places.

Hi All! The 2025 Winter Holiday Treasure Hunt has now ended. Thank you to all who participated!

We had 1,854 players for this hunt, and 1,060 players finding at least five clues. The average number of clues found was eight.

Our randomly selected winners for the hunt are:

@NurseBob
@Hagelstein
@Jfranklin592262
@bananah
@Cthulhouse-Lautrec

Winners: I will be messaging you about your mailing addresses, so we can get your prizes sent out to you!

Participants who found at least two evergreen trees: Badges should be going out soon!

>226 AbigailAdams26:

I just got a message:

LibraryThing has handed out another round of badges and medals, and you got some new ones: Coniferous Crest for participating in the 2025 Winter Holiday Hunt

so the badges have been released, it seems! Thanks!

>227 bnielsen: All praise to Lucy / @knerd.knitter! :)

>228 AbigailAdams26: :-)

Thanks Lucy!

>225 baystateRA:
Thank you…oddly after posting my request for direction and trying the same again, I got the common knowledge -places link list with more options to click on than before. I can’t understand why it didn’t work that way the first 10 times I tried that though. Thank you!

Aquila Thank you, your hints were very tactfully nudging without giving the answer. Much appreciated!

>226 AbigailAdams26: Thanks for the hunt!

Thanks for the Coniferous Crest, it's my first hunting badge here! I owe this to all the participants who provided clues, because without them I would have been stuck at 3-4 little trees... and, of course,

CONGRATULATIONS to all the winners, I do my best to join your joy!

>230 ImShaunie: I think the same thing happened to me!

I'm not sure where to direct this but over in the Talk about LibraryThing group, @rgurskey mentioned that "April 2026 will be the 100th anniversary of the publication of Amazing Stories, the first American science fiction specific magazine." Any possibility of a treasure hunt around that? @AbigailAdams26