Do you like puzzles as much as I do? Then you'll love these festive quizzes and puzzles

Welcome to Saturday's Special Christmas Puzzle Edition. You're about to embark on hours of mind-sharpening fun - or indulge in a dangerous vice that will ruin both society and your brain.

I have been a lifelong puzzle fan and in writing a book about my obsession I was amused and disturbed to see that since there have been puzzles, there have been whistleblowers.

Think crossword puzzles. After the first appeared in 1913 in the New York World, they became a craze, spreading to hundreds of other publications and even inspiring a Broadway play.

But not everyone was seduced. For decades, The New York Times refused to print what it considered an insignificant, insignificant waste of time. In the 1920s and 1930s, the Times published several articles describing crossword puzzles as a threat to society, lumping them together with prostitution and reefer.

And it wasn't just crossword puzzles. During the puzzle craze of the Depression, preachers condemned cardboard devils: “Nero fiddled while Rome burned. We will go down in history as the nation that puzzled as our country fell to ruin.

The anti-puzzle forces are still there. Just Google "Wordle is a waste of time" for proof. But I couldn't disagree more. I am firmly in the pro-puzzle camp. Why do I admire them? Let me count the paths. They encourage curiosity, relieve stress, and give us a moment of order in this chaotic world. They also bring us together. A few years ago, an American scientist researching ways to bridge the gap between liberals and conservatives found that one of the only activities that worked was crossword collaboration. More recently, one of the few topics that my politically diverse friends have agreed on: Wordle is fun.

Not to mention that puzzles saved the free world . Seriously. In 1942, the Daily Telegraph printed a crossword puzzle and invited those who solved it in under 12 minutes to work at Bletchley Park, the secret facility that helped break the Enigma code. So thank you, puzzles, for democracy.

And thank you, Guardian, for printing this collection. There's something for every puzzle lover: word games from pub quiz legend Frank Paul; mathematical puzzles from Ukrainian puzzle maestros, the Grabarchuks; a quest to create a rival Wordle; solve secrets; and a profile of Alex Horne from Taskmaster.

Have fun doing these puzzles and remember, don't feel guilty. Don't riot or kill anyone if you're frustrated.

A.J. Jacobs is the author of The Puzzler: One Man's Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, from Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life.

My quest to create the world's favorite new word game