[Story Break]
Guess the Christmas Carol – 2

This week’s carol

Can you tell what Christmas carol is represented by the photo above? Email your guess to LifelinesPublishing@gmail.com. (Don’t put your guess in the comments—you’ll ruin it for everyone!)

Last week’s answer

Last week’s Christmas carol was Deck the Halls. (Get it? It was a picture of Halls cough drops on my deck!)

To be honest, it was a little difficult to identify three winners from last week—mainly because there was such variation in how people followed the directions! So, to accommodate the confusion, I’ve decided to expand the list to FIVE winners. Here they are, along with explanations of how they won:

1. Rebecca Holwerda was the person whose answer I became aware of first—she stopped me in the hallway Wednesday morning and shouted, “Deck the Halls! Is it Deck the Halls? Is it? Am I right? Is it Deck the Halls?” Now, submitting an answer in person like this is not necessarily against the rules, though some may consider personal proximity to be an unfair advantage. And Rebecca did follow up her verbal response with an email, though she sent it to the wrong address. So I’m giving Rebecca credit for both enthusiasm and promptness, but not attention to detail.

2. Jim Grutzius was the first person to submit an answer electronically—but he posted it in the comments, which was definitely against the rules! So when I saw it there, I unposted it, and then I emailed Jim to let him know he needed to submit his answer via email, which he did. My mom made the same violation—and the same correction. So I’m giving Jim Grutzius and my mom shared credit for eager participation and quick corrections. And I’m extending them a little grace because I know they are not savvy internet people, so it’s pretty impressive that they’re playing the game at all. Mom, I won’t post your photo, but here’s a link to my last Mothers Day blog, which is one of my favorites.

3. Kurt and Julie Benda actually sent the first response by email, as instructed. So they get credit for being the first contestants to not only Guess the Christmas Carol but also Follow the Instructions. Plus, I feel I should give Julie extra credit for inspiring this fun series. Last December, she gave me a copy of an article from the Chicago Tribune about a Warrenville couple who send a Christmas card every year that includes a challenge to guess a Christmas message pictured on the card. People actually request to be on this couple’s Christmas card list! And they stay home to wait for the mail in order to be one of the first 10 recipients to call or email the couple with the correct answer—even though there’s no prize! So thanks, Julie, for giving me that article, and congratulations on being counted among the first winners of this contest.

4. Joan Schutt was the second person to follow instructions and email her correct response. I’m not exactly sure where she came across this blog (perhaps on LinkedIn?), but I did notice that she has now subscribed—twice!—probably in an attempt to ensure that she makes the list of winners every week, thus securing her reputation as a Clever Christmas Caroler. Joan is the Event Planner for Providence Life Services, so I’m including a link to the Events page of the Providence website. Congratulations, Joan!

5. And Marti Topp followed just a few minutes behind Joan with a correct, emailed response. Marti is a financial-type person with an organization called The Helpful People, which I know nothing about, but it does sound like a very friendly place. Congratulations, Marti!

Now, none of our winners submitted their own photo or link, probably because in their eagerness to respond they completely forgot about the celebrity that goes with being involved in a high-stakes, fast-paced, world-renowned contest like this. Or perhaps they assumed I would notify them of their victory ahead of time, so they could then reply with their own JPEG and URL. But, frankly, that’s a little too high-maintenance for me. So the photos and links you see above were selected by me and gleaned from the internet without anyone’s permission. It’s a good thing I’m trustworthy. Winners, if you don’t like the photo and link I’ve chosen for you, feel free to email me replacements.

Next week’s winners

The fun continues next week, and I will announce five winners again, but this time I don’t know how lenient I will be with people who don’t follow the instructions. I’ll repeat those instructions here: EMAIL your answer as soon as you can to lifelinespublishing@gmail.com.

Insider information: These blogs are all scheduled to post at 6:30am each Wednesday, so they are available for viewing then. I try to remember to post a link on my Facebook pages around 7:00am, and some people become aware of them that way. If you subscribe to this blog, you receive an email alert each time a new blog is posted, but sometimes you might not receive that email until 7:30am that day.

This is just information. Do with it what you will. I’m just sayin’.

Bonus

“Guess the Christmas Carol” is a four-part series, and all players who make the list of “first five” responders at least three out of four times will receive a LifeLines Story Starter Kit, which includes a nifty padfolio, a hefty pen, and a 1GB memory stick.

Enjoy!

 

Other Christmas posts:

• Christmas Story
• Advent series
• Epiphany