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How many reindeer?

Only reindeer and elves live in the stable.

You count 14 heads.

You count 40 legs.

Reindeer have four legs, elves two.

How many of them are reindeer? Lock in your gut answer.

← BlogSep 25, 20263 min read

13 Christmas riddles you can solve at the table, no trivia needed

Heron

I'm Heron. I do arithmetic in my head for a living, and the first time I met that stable I said ten, out loud, to a room that had already counted the heads.

So these thirteen are riddles nobody loses by not knowing. Every number you need is printed inside the question, and the rest run on everyday words.

Why the legs give the reindeer away

Two counts pin down two unknowns, and no algebra turns up. Lend every head in the stable two legs, then look at what is still lying on the floor.

Only reindeer want those spare legs, and each one wants exactly two. Twelve legs are left over, so six reindeer share the stable with eight elves.

Splitting the heads down the middle feels fairer and costs you the puzzle: seven of each walks on 42 legs, and the stable only has 40.

Let's run the move on a smaller barn: nine heads, twenty-six legs, same two animals.

Step 1 of 59 heads, 26 legs

26

Christmas riddles with the numbers hiding in them

Six riddles, and the arithmetic in each one fits on a gift tag. None of them asks you to remember a date, a carol, or a name.

The stable counts as riddle 1, which is why the cards start at 2. Say your answer out loud before you open one, and keep score in your head: the tally at the end asks what it was.

Riddle 2 of 13

One string of lights blinks every 4 seconds, the other every 6. They just blinked together. When again?

Riddle 3 of 13

Your tree is 6 feet 4 inches, the star adds 9 inches, and the ceiling is 7 feet. Does it fit?

Riddle 4 of 13

Eight of you pass a package around a circle, and Ana holds it first. After 20 passes, how many more to reach her?

Riddle 5 of 13

Christmas Eve hits 3 below zero, and Christmas afternoon reaches 5 above. How big is the swing?

Riddle 6 of 13

You split 30 chocolates among three kids so each one gets 2 more than the next. Who gets what?

Riddle 7 of 13

Two candles of equal height burn steadily, one out in 6 hours, one in 3. When is one twice as tall?

Riddle 5 hides a move worth keeping. When a count crosses zero, walk it up to zero first, then carry on up the other side.

Here is a colder night and a warmer afternoon. How many degrees apart are they?

−7° up to +6° =

Same rules as above. You've got this.

Heron

The next six put the calculator down. Everything they need is in the sentence, which is exactly why they are harder to say out loud without giving the game away.

Hand these to the youngest guest at the table. Kids take a sentence at face value, and that is the whole trick here.

Christmas riddles where the wording is the trap

Six riddles, and the only tool you need is a slow reader. Everyday words carry all of them, so the youngest guest is on even terms with the oldest.

The habit that cracks them: finish the sentence before your mouth starts. Most wrong answers here arrive about four words early.

The weekday game folds the moment you do that, and so does the flight from the North Pole.

Riddle 8 of 13

Christmas Day game: name three days in a row without saying Monday, Tuesday, or any weekday name.

Riddle 9 of 13

The eggnog is going around. Which is right: the yolk of the egg is white, or the yolk of the egg are white?

Riddle 10 of 13

Santa leaves the North Pole, flies 1,000 miles south, then 1,000 east, then 1,000 north. Where is he?

Riddle 11 of 13

I show up every December with a door for each day up to Christmas, and you get one a day. What am I?

Riddle 12 of 13

You can catch me at every Christmas party, and by January half the room has me. What am I?

Riddle 13 of 13

I am made of words. You can give me away and still keep me. What am I?

Every trap on this page runs on one reflex: the answer that arrives before you finish reading. Shane Frederick built a famous three-question test around it, and it scores one thing only: whether you can resist reporting the first response that comes to mind.

We named that reflex The Candy Trap in our Halloween riddles, and December feeds it beautifully. If the table is still going, our Christmas trivia questions hunt the same reflex with a different set of numbers.

What to remember

Heron
  • Lend everyone the minimum first. Heads, legs, shares, and seats all give way once every head is holding the smallest amount it could.
  • Walk through zero, never over it. Temperatures, floors, and years below the line each cost a step that a straight subtraction skips.
  • Read the question to the end. Six of these only work because your eyes finish the sentence early.

Honest tally: how many did you solve without peeking?

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