Door 22 · Stacker
Christmas Lunch Stack: Day 22 of Sunburnt Santa
Pile the whole Aussie Christmas lunch onto one plate: turkey, ham, prawns, potato, pudding, pav, a cherry and a mango cheek, in that order, over and over. Line each one up as it swings across, because Nan is watching.
How to play Christmas Lunch Stack
- Lunch swings across in order: turkey, ham, prawns, potato, pudding, pav, cherry, mango cheek.
- Tap to drop it on the plate. Overhang gets sliced off; a clean miss and the plate gives way.
- PERFECT drops build a streak multiplier. Nan has opinions.
Scoring
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Each item that lands on the plate | 100 |
| PERFECT drop (lined up exactly) | +50 |
PERFECT drops in a row build a multiplier: x2 from 3, x3 from 6, up to x5 from 12. A sloppy drop resets it and slices off whatever hangs over the edge, which narrows the plate for everything after. A clean miss and the plate gives way.
Stars: the three targets
Stars don't lock anything; they show how you're going, and doors with at least one star count towards the bonus games.
Tips for three stars
- Know the menu. Lunch always comes in the same order, and each item has its own width: the prawns are the widest thing on the menu, the cherry the smallest. Wide items are the ones that get sliced, so save your sharpest timing for the turkey, ham, prawns and pav.
- The small things are your friends. A cherry or a potato that lands inside the edges doesn't make the pile any narrower, so even a slightly off-centre drop costs you nothing but the PERFECT (and the streak). Use them to steady your rhythm.
- At 5,500 for three stars, the multiplier matters more than height. A streak of perfects takes you to x5, where each item is worth 750, so slow down and wait for a clean line rather than tapping early to keep the pace up: nothing is timing you.
The real story: what Australians eat for Christmas lunch
The menu in this level is the classic Aussie compromise: the roast turkey, ham and pudding of a northern-hemisphere Christmas, next to the cold prawns, the pav (pavlova, a meringue dessert piled with cream and fruit), the cherries and the mangoes that suit a Christmas in summer. It is how you end up with a steaming pudding on the same table as a bowl of cold prawns.
The seafood side has taken over a big share of the day. In a 2020 survey for the Marine Stewardship Council, seven in ten Australians said prawns are a vital part of their Christmas, and around 40 per cent of the prawns Australians eat all year go down over Christmas [1]. In Sydney, the fish market's Christmas marathon in 2023 was set to run for 36 hours from 5am on 23 December, with about 120 tonnes of prawns and almost 100,000 dozen oysters expected to be sold [2].
Christmas Lunch Stack serves all of it on one plate, the way a hungry cousin does at the buffet. Nan has opinions about it. For the rest of the day, from carols to cricket, see Christmas in Australia.
Read more: Christmas in Australia: the complete guide.
When it opens
Door 22 opens on day 22 of your own calendar (your Day 1 is the day you first play), and for everyone by 22 December. Play the door before it to open it. Once it's open you can replay it as often as you like, and after Christmas Eve all 24 doors stay open. How the calendar works.
Play now
Same kind of game: Stack the Pav, Present Tower, Sandy Claus.
Sources for the real story
- Don't make a shellfish choice this Christmas, Marine Stewardship Council
- 36 hour seafood marathon returns to Sydney Fish Market, City Hub Sydney