There’s no depiction of the final Christmas image in front of the box of a Stave puzzle. Just the jigsawed silhouette of a clown provoking a challenge. And for at least the past two or three decades, Sharon Twigg-Smith has welcomed the mind-boggling task of putting one together each year or at least revel in watching family members take a stab at piecing together a vibrant illustration of Santa in his workshop or a snow-laden winter landscape. A fun pastime that started as a simple way of giving the family an activity to work on during holiday gatherings — perhaps while the last of the presents were being wrapped or dinner was being prepped in the kitchen — has become a cherished tradition. Sharon counts she now has around 25-30 of these holiday-themed puzzles at her home in Sun Valley, Idaho where she often spends her Christmases reuniting with family from all over.         

One would think that Sharon was a puzzle-lover from the very beginning. Though she now considers herself a fanatic, it wasn’t always the case. “My stepdaughter, Ibby (who passed away in 2015), introduced puzzles to me — she herself was a puzzle cutter; she even had her own brand of puzzles (called Persimmon Puzzles out of Waialua).” But when Sharon’s husband (the late Thurston “Twigg” Twigg-Smith) became ill and she spent more time at home with him, it was then she started to fall in love with putting puzzles together. Since then, she’s always had a puzzle on her table. Always.   

True to form, a puzzle sits atop a table in a corner of Sharon’s living room, almost finished. Overlooking the city, it’s the perfect nook for enjoying downtime and assembling her latest jigsaw.

“Here in Honolulu, I have Liberty puzzles, about 120 or so. Some of them are catalogue puzzles, and some are ‘custom’ using family photographs,” Sharon shares. She had two custom Liberty puzzles on display that morning — one, a completed puzzle of a ziplining trip on Maui and the other, a family portrait. While Liberty’s are beautiful and well-made, Sharon’s fondness for Stave is apparent. She compares the two brands, pointing out that Stave puzzles are wood, and all hand-cut. The quality is far more superior — with a price point to match. “You pick a design and then you pick a size … the bigger the puzzle, the more the pieces, the more expensive.” Stave puzzles typically range from about $300 to $10,000 depending on the number of pieces. “I spent $8,000 on the last Christmas puzzle for Sun Valley,” Sharon reveals.

“The Liberty puzzles are also made of wood but are laser-cut, so they turn them out faster, are much less expensive, and their ‘large’ size is not as large. And you get used to the various formats they use so you can solve them more quickly after a while.”    

There’s no pattern to discern with a hand-cut Stave puzzle, cutters work freehand with an electric jigsaw so that each one is unique. Case in point: Sharon estimates she can do a 450-piece Liberty puzzle in roughly two days. A Stave with the same number of pieces is likely to take her two weeks. It comes as no surprise that these intricately cut puzzles are devilishly fun for those who like a challenge. On a recent trip to Norwich, Vermont, where Stave’s workshop is based, Sharon learned how seriously Stave takes the art of puzzle cutting. She discovered that it takes an apprentice a full year of practice before they can even engage in cutting puzzles.

But whether it’s a cleverly designed Stave, a custom-ordered Liberty or one of the treasured Persimmon puzzles made by stepdaughter Ibby, one can be certain that Sharon’s puzzle table will always have a puzzle waiting for its big picture to be revealed.