The Christmas answers is always one of my most popular posts – and I think this year will be even more so as I obviously made it a little tricky.

Especially number three, which even had it’s own #noideaonquestion3!

Congratulations to Craig at Macmillan, who was the only person to get all 15 right. Eagle eyed readers will note that he was first out of the hat last year, so double congratulations! As ever, he wins £50 for the charity of his choice.

And thanks everyone who entered. £200 is also going to SOFII.

So, to put you out of your misery, the answers….

Connections

1. All bands to have had 3 Christmas number ones. Band Aid was a slight stretch as they had different make-up, but that didn’t seem to throw you.

2. These are all John Lewis advert songs

3. The tricky one – only Craig got this. They are all Christmas songs where the title doesn’t appear in the lyrics. I bet a few of you have bruises from kicking yourselves about that one.

Sequences

4. Bob the Builder. Sorry to remind you about this song. The sequence was Christmas number ones from 1997 to 2000. I wonder if we’ll have a sequence that ends with LadBaby one day?

5. Drummers drumming. From the 12 days of Christmas.

6. Fuel. The last word of each line from the first verse of Good King Wenceslas.

7. Your Song, by Elton John. These are songs featured in the most recent John Lewis adverts

Missing vowels

8. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause (Or Mummy depending on which version you prefer)

9. Do They Know It’s Christmas?

10. Happy Christmas (War Is Over)

11. Santa Clause is Coming To Town

12. St Winifred’s School Choir

13. Mr Blobby (sorry to remind you of this song too – you’ll have this on the brain all Christmas now!)

14. Shakin’ Stevens

15. Band Aid

I hope you this gave you a little bit of fun over the Christmas period.

All that remains is to wish you a very happy Christmas, and a healthy and happy 2019.

Roger

Christmas is nearly with us. So it’s time to wish you a very happy Christmas, and send you my quiz.

I got so many replies last year from people who share my love of Only Connect, that I decided to stick with it again. But this year I have questions for all rounds except a Wall – maybe next year for that one.

I think some of these are a bit tricky, so please send in as many answers as you can get, to me at Christmas@RogerLawsonConsulting.com.

As always, every entry (no matter how many questions you get) will see £2 being donated to the wonderful SOFII. Please help me get to the target of £200 again.

And at midday (GMT) on Christmas Eve, one person will be selected at random from those that get most right to win £50 for the charity of their choice.

I hope this brings you a little bit of fun at this busy time of year. And I hope you have a fantastic Christmas and a happy and healthy 2019.

Roger

Judging from the replies I received, there are lots of other Only Connect fans out there. Maybe next year I’ll create a wall?

Congratulations to so many of you who got all the answers correct – more I think than for any previous quiz. Once again, £200 is on its way to SOFII.

And a big congratulations to Craig from Macmillan Cancer Support who was the first drawn at random and wins £50 to donate to whichever charity he chooses.

And thank you too to those who made me laugh. I particularly liked one person who thought they were all acronyms that their programs team use.

So now it’s time to put you all out of your misery. The answers are:

1. Last Christmas by Wham! There’s a campaign to make this the UK Christmas no. 1 in the year George Michael died – making up fort the fact that it was kept off the no. 1 spot by song no 8 below when it first came out
2. Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and the much missed Kirsty MacColl – released 30 years ago this year (how old do you feel now?)
3. I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas by Bing Crosby – the world’s biggest selling single
4. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, the opening line of The Christmas Song
5. Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow which I had to put in as it reminds me of my holiday this year. We were in Mexico in August and this was played in a restaurant where we were eating – surreal!
6. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Of course!
7. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, or I allowed those of us on the UK to enter with I Saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus
8. Feed the World, the refrain from Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?
9. All I Want For Christmas is You. Cheesy…? Yes. Brilliant…? Yes!
10. Pa Rum Pum Pum Pum, from The Little Drummer Boy. Did you know that this was first recorded by the Trapp Family Singers who were the inspiration for The Sound of Music?
11. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth. Sorry. Enough said!
12. I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday by Wizzard
13. Merry Xmas Everybody. Just brilliant, from Slade
14. Frosty the Snowman
15. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Andy Williams
16. Santa Baby, first sung by Eartha Kitt

I really hope you enjoyed the quiz this year. I’m already thinking about next year’s!

All that remains is for me to wish you a very

MR RYC HR ST MS and a HPP YNW YR

Roger

It’s that time of year again. Christmas is just a few weeks away so it’s time for a good quiz.

This year’s quiz is my way of paying my respect to my favourite TV quiz – Only Connect. For those of you who don’t know it, the last round is the ‘Missing Vowels Round’ where the vowels are taken out of well-known phrases and spaces are added in random places. Your task is to identify the phrase.

In this case, all the phrases are Christmas song titles, or famous lines from Christmas songs. So, as an example:

SM PLYH VNGW NDR FLC HR STMS TM

Would be ‘Simply having a wonderful Christmastime’ by Paul McCartney.

So over to you. Regular players of my quiz will recognise a few of my favourites in here, but there are a few new ones too.

Have fun!

Happy Christmas

When you’ve got as many as you can, please email me your list. For every entry I receive I will donate £2 to the wonderful SOFII.

And, at midday on Tuesday December 19th, one of the people who get the most right will be selected at random and given £50 to donate to a charity that they choose.

Good luck, and have fun!

Roger

P.S. If you want to know the answers I will post them before Christmas – be sure to sign up to make sure you get them.

* I have chosen SOFII again this year as they provide an invaluable resource to all us fundraisers. Our job is to inspire donors and SOFII makes this a little easier for all of us. Much as I love them, I need to limit my donation to them to £200, but please do enter to make sure we get there.

I had more entries than ever this year. Quite a few got the answers all right, but a few struggled so I’ll put you out of your misery.

The answers are:

White is the colour of Christmas that I’m dreaming of, as sung by Bing Crosby (and quite a few others since!). I told you it was an easy start.

Someone special is who I’ll give my heart to this year, unlike Last Christmas as Wham! sang about.

Your Granny is up and rock and rolling with the rest, according to Slade in Merry Christmas Everybody! It’s CHRIIIIIIIIIIISTMAS!

The Christmas party hop is where we’ll be rocking around the Christmas tree thanks to Brenda Lee.

The boys of the NYPD choir were singing ‘Galway Bay’ as we heard in the brilliant Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and the much missed Kirsty Macholl.

Blue is the colour that my Christmas will be without you – or more accurately it’s the colour Elvis’ Christmas would have been without you.

He began to dance around. This one caught out a lot of people, who obviously aren’t fans of Frosty the Snowman.

Thank God it’s them instead of you, which Bono sang on the original BandAid.

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Clause underneath the mistletoe last night.

Santa Clause is coming to town, which is why you’d better watch out (and better not cry etc).

I hope this gave you a little bit of fun, and well done to those of you who got them all right.

Thank you to everyone who entered. There is a donation of £200 on its way to SOFII as you read this. And especially well done to Kat from the University of Southampton, who was the first with 10/10 out of the hat who will get £50 to donate to any charity she chooses.

All that’s left is to wish you all a very happy Christmas and new year and a successful and healthy 2017.

Roger

It’s nearly here, so I want to wish you a very Happy Christmas.

My Christmas Quiz is back. And it’s testing how well you know your Christmas lyrics. How many of the ten questions on the card can you answer?

Happy Christmas!

Just send me your answers. For every entry I receive (right or wrong) I will give £2 to SOFII*, and at 5pm on Thursday 22nd December I will draw one name from all those who get the most right answers and donate £50 to a charity of their choice.

Just email me (or use the Contact Me link) with your guesses.

Enjoy the quiz. And I wish you and your loved ones a very happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Roger

P.S. If you want to know the answers I will post them before Christmas – be sure to sign up to make sure you get them.

* I have chosen SOFII again this year as they provide an invaluable resource to all us fundraisers. Our job is to inspire donors and SOFII makes this a little easier for all of us. Much as I love them, I need to limit my donation to them to £200, but please do enter to make sure we get there.

2015 has been quite a year for UK fundraisers, and as it draws to a close I hope you are all looking forward to a very Happy Christmas.

As you know, every year I run a Christmas quiz, raising money for SOFII. This year it’s a word-search – what could be simpler? Simply look in the tree below and find as many of the bands and artists that have had a UK Christmas no 1 hit (they might be written forwards, backwards, up, down or diagonally). There are 11 in total, plus another band that would have had one but for BandAid (there’s a clue!).

Can you spot the 12 bands and artists?

For every entry I receive I will donate £1 to SOFII*. And at midday on Christmas Eve, I will draw, at random, one entry from those that have got them all right and they will win a £50 donation for the charity of their choice.

Just email Christmas@RogerLawsonConsulting.com with your guesses.

I hope you enjoy the challenge – good luck! And please do pass this on to colleagues and friends to increase their chances of winning too.

With very best wishes for Christmas and for 2016.

Roger

PS For those of you that don’t get all 12, I will blog the answers on Christmas Eve.

* Why SOFII? Because at these times when we all need to be more creative in the way we inspire donors, it provides the most fantastic resource. For free!

It’s nearly Christmas, and the draw has been made.

Congratulations to George Overton of the Pilgrimage Trust who was the first all correct entry out of the hat. He wins £50 for his favourite charity. And thanks also to all the other entries – £200 is on it’s way to SOFII.

There were a lot more correct entries this year, but to put some of you out of your misery here are the answers. (From top and left to right):

Noel – there’s no L in there. Geddit? For those who guessed ‘Christmas Alphabet’ I can see where you were coming from, but it wasn’t quite the whole alphabet.

12 days of Christmas. Again, I liked a couple of entries that suggested ‘I Wish it Could be Christmas Everyday’ if only because it’s a great song!

I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas

All I want for Christmas is You

(Walking in a) Winter Wonderland

The First Noel

All that remains is to wish you all a very happy Christmas and a successful and healthy 2015. I’ll be planning next year’s quiz!

Roger

I hope 2014 has been successful and happy and that you are looking forward to 2015.

I’d like to wish you and yours a very happy Christmas and New Year.

You may know that every year I run a little Christmas Quiz with my Christmas card and best wishes. Apparently I made it a little difficult last year so I hope this year’s is a little easier. All you have to do is work out the clues which loosely lead to six Christmas songs.

When you think you know the answers, email them to me. For every entry I will donate £1 to SOFII (because it is a brilliant resource for fundraisers – up to £200). In addition, on Christmas Eve I will draw one name out of a hat from those that get all six right and they will win £50 to donate to a charity of their choice. So please do pass this on to your colleagues and friends.

Enjoy the puzzle and good luck!

And make sure you’re signed up to this blog to be the first to have the answers delivered to your in-box in time for Christmas.

With very best wishes for a very merry Christmas and a happy and successful new year.

Roger