Gingerbread Jail

Let’s start the new year off on a positive note and break someone out of jail! The holidays are behind us, technically, but if we ignore the facts and just keep celebrating, it will be Valentine’s Day before anyone realizes. There’s at least one more winter holiday themed bespoke puzzle box we need to discuss and it is adorable.

Kyle Chester and his grandfather have produced a nice series of puzzle boxes over the last few years under their Potentially Perplexing Puzzles (PPP) moniker, culminating in last year’s most impressive Reluctant Drawer. Kyle has also been bitten by the creative holiday bug, and for the end of year gift exchange last year came up with a special box for his gift recipient. It was a perfectly sized and themed object that featured a reasonably tricky mechanism. There was even an extra little finale included. It was great! Kyle had so much fun doing it that he did it again this year.

“It’s been exactly 12 months since we here at PPP unveiled The Snowman Box, a design that was inspired by the Karakuri Creation Group, and that was originally spawned to gift to one lucky recipient in the Mechanical Puzzle Discord Secret Santa exchange.

We’ve been lucky enough to make a few of The Snowman Box, and so there’s a very modest Snowman Army out there sitting and guarding the secrets of Christmas amongst many puzzler’s homes.

Fast forward to August this year, and I knew I had to follow up this December with an equally Christmassy themed puzzle.

I’d had the idea in my head for a month or so before I put it down on proverbial paper (I use a tablet to jot down the ideas) and after a few sessions tweaking the design it was ready for the prototyping stage.

Whilst Gingerbread Jail does not directly take inspiration from the KCG, I have taken the inspiration of trying to pack a wooden puzzle into a small frame. Gingerbread Jail sits at around a 70mm x 65mm box, and so once again I was pushed to a creative edge to make use of the space and try to make something fun and slightly challenging for the solver, all whilst maintaining that festive feel!

You could say it was somewhat inspired by Jon Keegan’s Bananas puzzle, in that there is a trapped Lego figure inside a box behind bars - the truth is, however, the alliteration of Gingerbread Jail was really what started this whole project. Once that name was in my head, I just knew I had to make a puzzle around it!

Just like with the Snowman Box, Gingerbread Jail is a trick opening puzzle with the goal being to ‘Free the Gingerbread Man and find the treat’

GJ and The Snowman Box have been arguably the most fun puzzles to create, and I hope to have something around this time next year from us for everyone to enjoy.

Merry Christmas, and HaPPPy holidays!”

A few lucky people will get the chance to free Gingy and experience PPP’s new holiday challenge. Similarly sized to the Snowman Box, it sits well in the hands and looks nice with purpleheart wood accents. The little Lego gingerman smiles plaintively at you while you struggle to free him. As Kyle mentions there is a single trick to master here, but it is definitely not as easy as Snowman. It’s downright devious!

Gingerbread Old Fashioned cocktail — Gingerbread Old Fashioned adapted from Michelle McGlinn

Here’s a toast to gingerbread freedom and a great way to start the new year. There’s nothing so classic as an Old Fashioned cocktail, so let’s start there and work our way into a winter holiday themed version. Speaking of winter holidays, way back in ancient Roman times they celebrated Saturnalia, a party in honor of the god Saturn, held around the winter solstice to mark the end of the agricultural season. Saturn was infamous for eating his own children, so none might overthrow him one day. During Saturnalia, revelers would eat little man shaped biscuits, too. Ginger was a medicinal herb in Roman times, and some place the origins of the gingerbread man right there.

The term gingerbread derives from Middle English gyngebreed, or “gingered food”. It’s technically not bread, after all – it’s cake and cookies! Queen Elizabeth I is credited with commissioning her special bakers to make gingerbread in the form of actual people, but after her death the treat became associated with witches and was banned. The brother’s Grimm seized on this dark turn of affairs. Just when you thought it was safe to eat gingerbread again, it reveals its true nature and winds up in jail. We’re probably all much safer this way. Don’t let him know that if he turns sideways, he can easily squeeze through the bars. Happy New Year!

Gingerbread Jail puzzle Kyle Chester and Gingerbread Old Fashioned cocktail — catch this pair

Gingerbread Old Fashioned adapted from Michelle McGlinn

1 ½ oz bourbon

½ oz calvados

1 oz gingerbread syrup*

3 dashes cardamom bitters

Orange wheel

Combine ingredients in a favorite glass over ice and stir. Garnish with the orange, a cinnamon stick, or a gingerbread cookie.

* simmer ½ cup water, ¼ cup brown sugar, 2 tbs molasses, ½ inch sliced fresh ginger, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 tsp allspice berries, 5 cloves in a small sauce pan over medium heat to dissolve sugar, then allow to steep for 20 minutes while cooling. Strain and bottle.

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