Unlike our offerings over Christmas and Thanksgiving, this December 31 edition of Beekeeper Crosswords is actually a holiday puzzle. Happy “end of the oughts”, and let us look forward to the terrific tens.

Crossword puzzle makers are in a constant struggle to keep their offerings fresh and topical. Some of us, alas, are far more likely to include DAG Hammarskjöld or NGO Dinh Dimh than Lady GAGA or JAY-Z. Thus, it is with some pride that I find myself able to include references to the underwear bomber in a current crossword. Likely this isn’t the first such crossword appearance, but I like to think I made the top three.

Title: Precedents
Difficulty: Wednesday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

This puzzle goes out to all the misunderstood night creatures waiting impatiently for Halloween. We know it’s not easy being a ghost, ghoul, vampire, werewolf, or other monster-American minority, but remember — you got your special day long before the secretaries, left-handers, and pirates got theirs. So don’t be afraid to go out and shine (or skulk, howl, or manifest, if that’s more comfortable for your particular ethnicity).

Title: What Kind of Monster….
Difficulty: Thursday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

We’re posting this puzzle an hour early so that it will still by ST PAT’s day. But that’s not the only thing special about this puzzle. Put away your green beer and get out your four-leaf clovers, ’cause you may need all the luck you can get for this one. In response to audience demand, we’ve changed things up and made this puzzle annoyingly hard. Then again, in response to *other* audience demand, we’ve kept it just like it’s always been. The net result is that there are two versions of the puzzle: the hard one, which you’ll find in the applet above (unless you are in a non-java-capable browser or RSS reader) will hopefully annoy you; the easy one, which you can get by downloading the across lite puzzle or the PNG image, should be exciting yet comfortable. You can pick one or the other, or you can print out the easy version and use it to help you over the humps as you work the hard version on-line.

We’d love to hear whether you prefer the easy version, the hard version, or both. If you don’t want to comment for the whole world to see, you can always mail us.

In yet more exciting news, Beekeeper Labs is pleased to announce that it has just release version 1.1 of the CrossFire crossword maker. Amongst other new features, this release makes it much easier to create puzzles like this one, and gives customers access to the on-line solving applet that is used above. If this sounds exciting, you can download a trial version at the above link.

Title: Emerald Isle
Difficulty (hard): You tell us
Download (hard): Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)
Difficulty (easy): Tuesday
Download (easy): Across Lite or printable PNG

The official publication time of this puzzle is Wednesday, February 11th — which is practically the same as Saturday, February 14th.  Thus, we know what most young men are thinking about:  how the heck they are going to get restaurant reservations after they put everthing off till the last minute.  We are so moved by this touching sentiment that we cannot resist putting out our very own black, white, and highly symmetric tribute to this wonderful season of chocolates, flowers, and overpriced greeting cards.

Title: I’ll Call You
Difficulty: Wednesday/Thursday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

October is drawing to a close, and that means scary things are in the air — election day, the stock market, and (oh yeah!) a small holiday that that you might choose to call Samhain, All Saints Eve, or Candy Day.  To commemorate these frightening times, we bring you a hauntingly appropriate puzzle.  We’d describe it as fiendish, except that we decided to give even neophyte solvers a ghost of a chance of solving it before the witching hour — thus, you’ll have to settle for a challenge that is merely impish.

Title: Ghost Story
Difficulty: Tuesday
Download: Across Lite or printable PNG (w/ solution)

Okay, it’s mostly over.  You’ve set up the tree, lit the candles, aired your grievances, and opened the packages.  But now Christmas, Hanukkah, and Festivus have ended.  (For those celebrating other holidays, I ask that you make appropriate adjustments.  If you’re celebrating Kwanzaa, this message will still be waiting for you in a week.  I apologize to you for the timing.) However, now it’s Wednesday, and that means you get to open up a new crossword puzzle.

Even if we’re running a bit late, we’ve tried to keep a bit of a holiday theme with this puzzle, so keep your eyes open.  Quite possibly you will find that the difficulty level is that of a Wednesday NYT puzzle, but our trusted team of reviewers all fell asleep over their figgy pudding, so  there is no official rating on the puzzle.  Regardless, you can definitely download it in either of two formats:  as an Across Lite file or as a printable PNG image.  Happy holidays and pleasant solving to you all.

You might not have noticed without my reminder, but Halloween falls on October 31st this year, so we’re celebrating by giving you a special Halloween crossword puzzle.  It’s a party, and we invite you to pull out your best fancy cape and buy your mummy a new mink wrap because it is strictly a formal affair.  (If you are in doubt about proper Halloween decorum, we invite you to check out Miss Manners’ Guide to Correctly Excruciating Behavior.)

This crossword is a fully themed Times-style puzzle, stuffed chock-full of holiday goodness, and has been graded at roughly at Wednesday/Thursday level of difficulty.  You can download it in Across Lite format, or as a printable PNG image.