- Santa tell us that the corners are Jennifer, Susan, Peter, and Robert and that no girls are in the last column, while no names beginning with a letter in the 1st half of the alphabet are in the last row. So we know Jennifer and Susan are in the left corners and Robert and Peter are in the right corners. We know Jennifer must be the top left corner (name starts with “J”) and so Susan must be in the bottom left corner.
- Jennifer tells us she can see the girl who dismembered her sister’s doll (not Susan) and that no one in her diagonal shares a name with an apostle of Jesus. The bottom right corner is her diagonal, so it must be Robert there because Peter shares a name with an apostle of Jesus. So Peter is in the top right corner.
- Susan says both Peter and Robert can see Michael, but neither are adjacent to him. The only cell both of them can “see” without being adjacent to (and that isn’t occupied) is E3, so Michael is in E3.
- Peter tells us he is not adjacent to anyone who shares a name with a main character in “the Little Mermaid”. He also tells us only two girls are thieves.
- Robert tells us that Emily is adjacent to Susan and Clarice.
- Michael lets us know that it is Clarice who dismembered her sister’s doll and that Santa can’t see her. We know Jennifer can see Clarice and that Emily is adjacent to Clarice and Susan. We know neither Emily nor Clarice can be in the bottom row because their names start with letters in the beginning of the alphabet. If Emily was in A4, the only squares Clarice could be in would be seen by Santa (except the one on the bottom row, which she can’t be in). So we know Clarice is in A4 and Emily is in B4.
- Clarice tells us that the car thief is adjacent to Arthur, but not adjacent to any girls.
- Emily tells us that the car thief is Samuel and that he is adjacent to Santa. She also tells us that Melinda is adjacent to Peter, but Jennifer can’t see her, so we know Melinda is in D2 (she can’t be in the last column because that is boys only and Jennifer can see the first row).
- Since Melinda is in D2, we know that Samuel is in D4, because any other spot adjacent to Santa would also be adjacent to a girl.
- Melinda tells us Ursula cut off her sister’s hair!
- Samuel tells us that Arthur (who we have been told her is adjacent to) is also not adjacent to any girls, so we know Arthur in E4 because he can’t be in the bottom row and all other positions open that are adjacent to Samuel are also adjacent to girls.
- Arthur tells us the girl who cut off her sister’s hair (Ursula) is in his diagonal, but Santa can’t see her. She can’t be in his lower diagonal, because then she would be adjacent to him and Samuel, so she must be in B1 because it is the only other spot in his diagonal that is not visible by Santa.
- Ursula tells us the name of 3 other troublemakers – Willy, Sarah, and Carl. One is adjacent to Robert. Since the only spot open next to Robert is D5, we know it must be Willy because his name begins with a letter in the second half of the alphabet and he is not a girl (Samuel and Arthur aren’t adjacent to girls).
- Willy tells us that Sarah is adjacent to a girl who shares a name with the girlfriend of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (Clarice), but that Santa can’t see her. The only spot adjacent to Clarice still open that Santa can’t see is B5, so Sarah is B5.
- Sarah tells us that Santa’s column has two girls (who are above him) and two boys (who are below him). The boys are Eric and Nathaniel. So Nathaniel must be C5 because Eric starts with a letter in the first half of the alphabet (Eric must be C4).
- Eric tells us that the two girls in his column are thieves.
- Nathaniel says that Carl can see the girl who stole from him and that her name is Ariel and that she is adjacent to Santa, so Ariel is C2.
- Ariel tells us that Monica did not steal with her and that she is not adjacent to Santa, but that he can see her. The only square that Santa can see that is not adjacent to him and that is unoccupied is A3. So Monica is A3.
- Monica tells us that Jimmy is next to his best friend Michael, as well as 2 kids who share names with main characters in “The Little Mermaid”. She also tells us that Carl is adjacent to Peter.
- We know Jimmy can’t be in E2 because then Carl would be in D1 and he would not be next to 2 people who share names with main characters in “The Little Mermaid”. So Jimmy must be in D3 (adjacent to his best friend Michael, as well as adjacent to Ariel and Eric). Carl could be in D1 or E2 to be adjacent to Peter.
- Jimmy says Marilyn and Louise are in the top row, which means Carl must be beneath Peter (only two spots left in top row).
- Carl lets us know that the other two spots in his row are occupied by Jason and Ryder, while Yvonne is adjacent to Monica.
- Yvonne tells us that Jennifer doesn’t share her diagonal with anyone who has the same initial as she does, so we know Ryder is in B2 and Jason is in A2. She also tells us that Louise is not a thief, so we know Marilyn is above Ariel and that Louise is in D1.