The Christmas When Santa Forgot the Date

Santa was looking for his advent calendar one day, in the middle of a pile of magazines. He had been religiously ticking off the days, one by one, until on the third, he lost the calendar, I heard. The Christmas fairy was rather worried - fearing that this year, nothing would be done on time, in she scurried. Within minutes, papers flew everywhere - the elf looked on the bookshelf and the gnome under the chair - but there was no advent calendar anywhere ! It wasn't in the newspaper rack, so Santa looked inside his Christmas sack. Santa turned the house virtually upside down - he looked on the hatstand and where he kept the bus pass for going into town. Next, Santa searched beneath the cushions on his sleigh, he wasn't sure he hadn't put the advent outside there, but he looked anyway ! Before things got much worse, Santa asked the snowman if it was the fifteenth or the twenty - first ? "I think that it's Boxing Day !", piped in the robin, "Oh ! Great ! Now we're late !", cried Mrs. Christmas, sobbing. The Christmas preparations had never been such a hurry, as when Santa's lost advent calendar put everyone in a flurry. Although Santa looked quite hard, he forgot to look in the Christmas cards. High on the mantelpiece, just out of reach where no - one ever did go, were all Santa's greeting cards, lined up in a very long row. Up Santa jump - and back down with a bump. When the Christmas cards, one by one, fluttered through the air, Santa spotted his advent calendar flying towards the stairs. "Quick, it's there !", Santa gave a shout, as all the gnomes turned about. It really was a race to catch it. Although it was bent quite a bit, "Hooray !", the elves were cried out with glee, (and in the countdown to Christmas day, it was still only day twenty - three). Countdown to Christmas How many more days to Christmas ? Can you help Santa to get his sums right so he takes presents to the children all around the world on the right night ? For example - in question one, on the fifth, there are 20 more days to Christmas.

1. 5 + ___ = 25

2. 15 + __ = 25

3. 10 + __ = 25

4. 20 + __ = 25

5. 25 + __ = 25

6. 1 + __ = 25

7. 7 + __ = 25

8. 3 + __ = 25

9. 4 + __ = 25

10. 6 + __ = 25

11. 9 + __ = 25

12. 11 + __ = 25

13. 16 + __ = 25

14. 12 + __ = 25

15. 18 + __ = 25

16. 21 + __ = 25

17. 23 + __ = 25

18. 24 + __ = 25

19. 19 + __ = 25

20. 13 + __ = 25

21. 17 + __ = 25

22. 8 + __ = 25

23. 2 + __ = 25

24. 22 + __ = 25

25. 14 + __ = 25

© Jacqueline Richards 2008