Cross off the impossible. Uncover the one number that warms a stranger’s winter.
A printable elimination puzzle where 100% of the profit — after Etsy and payment fees — becomes water bottles for the worst of the summer heat, and socks and caps for the coldest nights of the year.
I make elimination puzzles all year. Once a year I make one I don’t keep a dime from.
Somewhere near you there is a shelf like the one in this puzzle — leave what you can, take what you need. Water bottles in July, when the heat is the thing that hurts. Socks and caps in January, when it’s the cold. Nobody signs their name to any of it.
The Thankful Code is my way of putting something on that shelf. It is a real logic puzzle first: 5,000 possible numbers, ten fair clues, one honest answer, no tricks and no guessing. But 100% of the profit it earns, after Etsy and payment fees, goes straight into supplies — bought and handed to people who don’t get to come inside when the weather turns.
There is no overhead here. No shipping, no warehouse, nobody taking a cut on the way through. A sale becomes supplies, pretty much directly.
I only talk about it in November, because that is the month I want people thinking about who isn’t warm right now. The listing stays up all year, quietly doing its job. And every December I come back and tell you exactly what it bought — that is the deal, and it is the part of this I take most seriously.
Solve it because it’s a good puzzle. Buy it because, this once, that’s also the whole point.
Frenika Devon
This is personal giving funded by product sales, not a registered nonprofit. Your purchase is a purchase — it isn’t a tax-deductible donation, and I will never call it one. What I can promise is that 100% of the profit turns into supplies, and that I will show you exactly what it bought.
A genuinely good puzzle — not a donation with extra steps. Print it, pour something warm, and cross off numbers until one is left standing.
Every number from 0001 to 5000, printed on a list made to be crossed off with a pencil.
Visual, comparison and arithmetic. Every clue is a stand-alone fact about the number — no tricks, no red herrings.
A full themed PDF plus a clean black-and-white version for pencil work, or mark it up on a tablet.
An optional online nudge for every clue, and an answer check that confirms your number without spoiling it.
Solo with a coffee, or passed around the whole Thanksgiving table. Real arithmetic, so it suits ages 12 and up.
After Etsy and payment fees, all of it becomes water bottles, socks and caps. Nothing is skimmed off the top.
Instant digital download. Stuck on a clue? Every clue has an optional hint, and you can check your answer without spoilers. Hints & answer check ↗
Every December I come back and fill this in with the real totals, counted after the sale closes. No estimates, no rounding up, no vague talk about “supporting the community”.
Totals are updated once a year, in December, and they stay up so you can check last year’s against this one.
Photos from the drop-offs — the shelf, the bundles, the boxes in the back of the car. I add to this every time I go out.
That is when the figures above stop being dashes. If you would like to be part of what fills them in, the puzzle is one click away — and if you have already solved it, thank you. Genuinely.