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Freddie at, those two are thematic and anagrams…

Well, I enjoyed this very much - many thanks to Maskarade, and to Jono for your very helpful grid which allowed me to get started on my iPad before getting out of bed on Saturday. (I then printed a copy from the paper blown up to make the grid nearly full page.) In between guesses, a bit of reasoning back from missing theme elements, some research and a little help (much less than usual) from the forum, I’ve managed to complete it which feels very rewarding. FOI 5a, LOI 64 as I was being very dense (and determinedly non-seasonal!)

Best wishes everyone for a great 2024.

Well, Merry Christmas all and to Maskerade. This was enjoyable if a little monotonous at the end when I was just filling in words without really parsing some of the answers. But I think that's more to do with me than Maskerade. I was keen to move on to Everyman. Thanks for the all the hints as ever and see you in 2024.

Well, I finished earlier today in between my chores (not really chores). A couple I can't parse. Two words I didn't know - Cere and the answer to 48d. But I looked up both.

I found 26 trios, but have no idea how to arrange them, or I can't be bothered.

Have a lovely Christmas day everyone.

Rocky, can you send me your veggie recipe? Our daughter is vegan so I have to find alternatives to butter.

I hope to be back next week to see in the new year.

Impressed by the work gone in to this. Three clues not got. O well. I not ferpect. Cherry Missed Mass.

Roof. Gladly. But bear in mind I'm using puff pastry which has butter in it. You will need to find an alternative. How can I get it to you without having to post the whole recipe on a crossword forum?

Roof: I may be wrong, but I think the use of the word ‘arranged’ in the instructions is a bit of a red herring. I think Maskarade means only that there are 26 different sequences, therefore each starts with a different letter, and so you can list them in such a way as to form a cycle.
I expect to be corrected, but in the meantime I wish everyone here all joy this season.

Merry Christmas all. Hats off to those who resolved Maskerade's challenge so swiftly - took me three visits! I did enjoy this puzzle though.
Finally completed the grid last night but I have a problem. I've only got 25 trios marked off. I have 7 in the acrosses and 18 in the downs.
Help please, only possibility I see is 44 but then the parsing beats me.
Best wishes for 2024.

Hi JK,
You should be able to tick off the trios you have alphabetically to determine which trio you are missing and then find a word with those letters. Definitely not 44 though. Looks like the trio you are missing is in a down clue.
Hope you get it sorted!

Rocky7
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