James Turner

Just remember, with each crunch you are canonically ending the life of a sentient creature.

I'm sort of working to get it back online - just have to convince myself to pay money to host a site that it's possible no one will go to!

Ah, thank you, I'll go and check them out!

I did tell one of the puppet makers that I wanted it to have a 'working mouth', so yeah, maybe?

Apparently there is a really big market of people who want to pay someone else to put their photo through an AI filter.

I've actually found a couple of promising looking puppet makers on there, so perhaps I should be less cynical!

I'm always a bit wary of using Etsy - it feels like I'm never really sure if what I get is going to match the description... But I'll check it out!

Does anyone in blue sky world know someone who makes custom puppets? Trying to get one commissioned but google can only get me so far.

It's official: Phoenix Fest 2026 is coming! It's going to be on the 25th-26th of April and I'll be doing four workshops with the brilliant 'Toby and the Pixies' artist, @andreasschuster.bsky.social. See here for all the details: phoenixfest.co.uk/whats-on/

Thank you to everyone who followed along, and I'll see you all next year.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Calendar: 21.5, Me: 2.5
#CalendarGuess2025

And somehow, if you hold onto all that is good about the world hard enough, then maybe, just maybe, you might find that there is still a small picture of two stockings out there in the world.

You just have to believe.

When I was in that moment of deepest despair that vision of a candle saved me. It showed me that even if it seems like your actions don't matter in the face of an uncaring calendar, they matter to you, and those around you.

And lastly, I always like to reflect on what we've learned. And while it's tempting to just say that the only thing we've learned is that Roger la Borde is a colossal pervert, I think there's more to it than that.

But I respect other cultures enough to allow them to have their own traditions without having to transpose them onto mine, even if that culture is mostly hedgehogs with a mug on their bum.

Could a bear on a flying carpet be the animal in a teacup world's version of Santa? It certainly seems to be delivering presents, and has a certain gruffly genial air about it.

And so a few final closing thoughts.
There was a tree on the flying carpet. Would I have allowed myself a point if I'd guessed it? It's better not to dwell on these might-have-beens. We make the calendar guesses we make.

So let's just close this final door and turn our collective backs on Roger for good. Through the goodness of our hearts, Christmas has survived, even flourished, despite his desperate attempts to foil it. The real advent calendar doors were inside us all along.

I don't think it could have ended any other way. Roger had his vile way with door 24, his vice like hold over the calendar could not be broken. But I feel calm. Roger thinks he's won, but will that tiny picture of a bear keep him warm in his dark London tower over Christmas? We all know it won't.

No, it's a bear on a flying carpet.

I think I could stay true to my beliefs by guessing Santa regardless of the old fellow's species. Should I do it? Dare I do it? I think I'm doing it.

Santa.

But then a thought occurs: could it be an animal Santa?? Maybe a rabbit with his rear end stuck in a teapot. I was all prepared to guess tree, but now this worrying image haunts me. Could it be animal Santa?

And then there's the Christmas big boy, Santa himself. To include a human figure feels anathema to everything this calendar has provided before, but could it be possible? I can't imagine it somehow.

There's really only two Christmas 'big hitters' left that could fit behind a door of this magnitude: a tree, or the big red boy himself.
A tree, behind a picture of a tree is just the sort of antics you might see in this calendar, but is it really high enough impact for the final door?

I stick by my vow to only guess actual Christmas imagery. To do anything else would be to turn my back on all that is holy about this festive season.
But what? For years now we've finished on the nativity, but I don't think even Elise would pull that off here.

Of course I also have to wonder if Elise is just Roger in a wig doing a funny voice, but I don't know if that really helps us here.

But now we stand before the final portal and we have to wonder: who will be awaiting inside today? Will it be horrible Roger with his depraved beasts defacating remorselessly into tea cups, or will it be Elise, with one final gift before Christmas, one final sane image.

For a moment I thought we finally saw a human side to Roger la Borde, but in retrospect I think it more likely that Elise, his imprisoned illustrator, briefly shook free her bonds and sent this one message of hope from that dark tower before Roger sealed her away again.

And then when all seemed lost, that beautiful moment of the stockings appeared, like a moment of sunlight in an overcast day. A day overcast by a sky full of woodland animals provocatively protruding from assorted kitchenware.

What a year it's been. I'm not going to lie to you, I had almost abandoned hope by the halfway mark. Going from that high of a door one guess to the lows of door after door of porcelain dwelling woodland animals, it's been one of the darkest periods of calendar guess history.

The big two-four