# CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!

And to celebrate, here is a Christmas related sudoku:

*A friend gave this to me and it took a long time for me to solve it. Thaks to @GentlePurpleRain for providing an updated one which is unique.

• CHRISTMAS has 8 distinct letters. CHRISTMAS IS COMING has 11. The grid contains exactly the letters of CHRISTMAS. What is the intended repertoire of symbols for this puzzle? (Am I missing something?) – Gareth McCaughan Dec 16 '16 at 17:37
• @GarethMcCaughan 'Christmas is coming' has nothing to do with the sudoku. The letters for the sudoku are 'CHRISTMAE' (S repeated twice in 'CHRISTMAS') – Beastly Gerbil Dec 16 '16 at 17:39
• The no-computers tag doesn't mean we can't use image editors, right? – TrojanByAccident Dec 16 '16 at 17:50
• @Saiid of course not – Beastly Gerbil Dec 16 '16 at 17:54

I believe this is the solution:

Here's a text version (made with MathJAX):

$\begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \color{blue}{ \mathtt{C}} & \mathtt{a} & \mathtt{e} \\ \hline \mathtt{m} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{H}} & \mathtt{i} \\ \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{S}} & \mathtt{t} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{R}} \\ \hline \end{array} & \begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{T}} & \mathtt{m} & \mathtt{i} \\ \hline \mathtt{s} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{R}} & \mathtt{a} \\ \hline \mathtt{c} & \mathtt{h} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{E}} \\ \hline \end{array} & \begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \mathtt{s} & \mathtt{r} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{H}} \\ \hline \mathtt{c} & \mathtt{t} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{E}} \\ \hline \mathtt{i} & \mathtt{m} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{A}} \\ \hline \end{array} \\ \hline \begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{T}} & \mathtt{c} & \mathtt{h} \\ \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{A}} & \mathtt{i} & \mathtt{m} \\ \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{R}} & \mathtt{e} & \mathtt{s} \\ \hline \end{array} & \begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{I}} & \mathtt{a} & \mathtt{m} \\ \hline \mathtt{e} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{S}} & \mathtt{r} \\ \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{H}} & \mathtt{c} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{T}} \\ \hline \end{array} & \begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{E}} & \mathtt{s} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{R}} \\ \hline \mathtt{h} & \mathtt{c} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{T}} \\ \hline \mathtt{a} & \mathtt{i} & \mathtt{m} \\ \hline \end{array} \\ \hline \begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \mathtt{i} & \mathtt{s} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{A}} \\ \hline \mathtt{h} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{R}} & \mathtt{c} \\ \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{E}} & \mathtt{m} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{T}} \\ \hline \end{array} & \begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \mathtt{r} & \mathtt{t} & \mathtt{h} \\ \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{M}} & \mathtt{e} & \mathtt{s} \\ \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{A}} & \mathtt{i} & \mathtt{c} \\ \hline \end{array} & \begin{array}{|c|c|c|} \hline \color{blue}{\mathtt{M}} & \mathtt{e} & \mathtt{c} \\ \hline \mathtt{t} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{A}} & \mathtt{i} \\ \hline \mathtt{r} & \mathtt{h} & \color{blue}{\mathtt{S}} \\ \hline \end{array} \\ \hline \end{array}$

I got this result by systematically going through row by row, column by column, group by group and letter by letter writing down the cell values that had to be a particular letter.

The bold capital letters in the shaded regions are the clues given and everything else is what I typed in.

• Looks right to me. I did basically the same thing, and got the same result. – Justin Time - Reinstate Monica Dec 16 '16 at 23:28