2015 chart-topping hit for the Weeknd / SUN 12-21-25 / 51 to the hour / Blue colorant obtained from the indigo plant / Grammy winner Erykah / Prickly denizen of coral reefs / 1950s hangout with a jukebox / Great Dane of cartoons, informally / Kind of cipher in which A becomes B, B becomes C, e.g. / Eponymous British financier James / Duke Ellington classic with the lyric "That was my heart serenading you"

Constructor: David Kwong

Relative difficulty: Medium

THEME: "Present Time" — "Presents" (circled squares) can be found UNDER THE TREE (69D: Where to find six "presents" in this puzzle?)—that is, each circled square can be found directly under a square that contains the name of a tree. Puzzle notes read: "Once the puzzle is complete, the circled letters, when read from left to right, will spell a punny two-word phrase." That phrase: "FIR YEW" (two tree names that together kinda sound like the phrase "For You," which ... is a "present"-related phrase, I suppose). 

Tree answers:

• SUPINE / PORCUPINE FISH (103A: Lying faceup / 78D: Prickly denizen of coral reefs)
• I'M SOAKED / PRELUDE TO A KISS (54A: Comment from someone caught in the rain / 4D: Duke Ellington classic with the lyric "That was my heart serenading you")
• DANCED AROUND / CLARENCE DARROW (112A: Evaded, as a sensitive issue / 80D: Famed lawyer in the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial)
• ST. ELMO / "CAN'T FEEL MY FACE" (71A: Sailor's patron / 39D: 2015 chart-topping hit for the Weeknd)
• PALM OFF AS / ARNOLD PALMERS (46A: Fraudulently make seem like / 13D: Iced-tea-and-lemonade refreshments)
• SODA SHOP / ASH WEDNESDAY (14A: 1950s hangout with a jukebox / 17D: Fast start?)

Word of the Day: Erykah BADU (10D: Grammy winner Erykah) —

Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), known professionally as Erykah Badu, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. Influenced by R&B, soul, and hip-hop, Badu rose to prominence in the late 1990s when her debut studio album Baduizm (1997), placed her at the forefront of the neo soul movement, earning her the nickname "Queen of Neo Soul" by music critics. [...] Badu's voice has been compared to jazz singer Billie Holiday.^[8][9][10] Early in her career, Badu was recognizable for her style, which often included wearing very large and colorful headwraps. She was a core member of the Soulquarians. As an actress, she has played a number of supporting roles in movies including Blues Brothers 2000, The Cider House Rules and House of D.  [...] Badu has won five awards from twenty nominations. (wikipedia)

• • •

The word that comes to mind is "shaggy" (and not just 'cause SCOOB is in the puzzle). I mean "shaggy" in the sense of "confused or unclear in conception or thinking" (m-w). But also in the sense of "lovable," the way a shaggy dog is lovable. Who's a good puzzle!? You are! Yes you are! Neither of my dogs were "shaggy," but they were adorable and I loved them both, even when they hopped the back wall and went on neighborhood adventures or ate entire dish towels (RIP Dutchess and Gabby, respectively). With the puzzle, I kept thinking "what the hell is this puzzle doing!?" but more in amused disbelief than in anger. smh like, "you crazy puzzle!" I think I started feeling this way at just about [checks watch] NINE PAST. Yes, it was 9:09PM when I first realized that NINE PAST was going to be an actual answer in an actual crossword (7D: 51 to the hour). Do we have a recording of my response? We do? OK, roll it: "[laughter] [more laughter] [ongoing laughter] ... I'm sorry, that's the dumbest answer I've ever seen in my f***ing life!" I might have been literally shaking my head (smh). NINE PAST is so outlandish, so absurd, so desperate, so MacGyverishly improvised that it's almost brilliant. You gotta have massive confidence and/or a screw loose to throw down NINE PAST. I mean, NINE PAST ... if the mission was to distract me from TETROMINO (!?!?), well, Mission Bleeping Accomplished. Slow clap. I can't say I like it, but I can say it didn't make me any IRATER—unlike IRATER, which was, as comparative adjectives go, is infuriating). Although ... might make a good name for my inevitable memoir: I, RATER. Move over, I, CLAUDIUS! Take that, I, TINA!

But the theme ... that's the thing. A Christmas theme for the Christmas season. That, I approve of unequivocally. The concept and execution here, though. Wow. So the circled squares—which more than a few solvers hate on principle, hate instinctively—are offered up as "gifts." "Here, I got you a gift! You like circled squares, right?!" Love the trolling, keep going, what else you got, puzzle? Well, the "gifts" are clearly marked, in that they are wrapped in circles. We can see them. There they are. They are the opposite of hidden. So you see circles and you figure, "OK, well, I guess that's where the action is going to be." And you're not wrong, but also you have no idea, because there's this whole other completely unmarked element of the theme—an entire minefield of trees! And not just hidden inside answers, but hidden inside single squares. Yes, it's a stealth rebus! David is a professional magician, and this puzzle feels very much like sleight of hand. Your eyes get distracted by one thing, the thing you think is important, but meanwhile there's a whole other layer to the trick that you absolutely do not see coming. I didn't, anyway. If I might botch a metaphor the way NINE PAST botches all rules of crossword decorum, I couldn't see the forest for the presents. Until I did. So some comedic, non-lethal version of me skiing directly into a tree, that's what I looked like when I hit my first tree. 

I hit that tree in the middle of a song I'd never heard of, "PRELUDE TO ... TO ... TO ...?" What, "PRELUDE TO I.S.S., the International Space Station"? I checked the cross: 54A: Comment from someone caught in the rain. "Uh ... I'M SO ... WET?" Nope, won't fit. It was at that point that I first thought "maybe there's a rebus?" But my first thought was that the rebus square contained "OW"! as in "I'M SO WET!" (also as in "OW, I just ran into a tree!"). But that would make the song "PRELUDE TO WISS!" and as I don't know who or what or where WISS is, I had to abandon that idea. And at that point I thought "'PRELUDE TO A KISS' sounds like a thing I've heard before..." And bam, there it was: the OAK hiding in adjacent dimension, the rebus Twilight Zone. Did I like it? Hell, I don't know. But I definitely felt it, and it's good to feel things on a Sunday. I didn't feel hopeful, exactly, but I felt legitimately curious and kind of excited to see what treasures/horrors awaited me. I think I decided "alright, this puzzle is on one ... let's see where it goes!" And where did it go? Well, one of the main places it went was smack into the Weeknd's "CAN'T FEEL MY FACE" (!!!!) (which, like OW, is also what you say after you run into a tree at full speed). 

Working "ELM" into this puzzle via "CAN'T FEEL MY FACE" was the thing that made me realize that whatever I was going to feel about this puzzle in the end, I wasn't going to be able to hate it. That is some baroque, ornate theming right there. The execution of the rebus squares may be the thing I liked the most, beyond the mere fact of them (which was a total surprise). Such great long answers enveloping those trees. So inventive. What the hell is a PORCUPINE FISH!? Don't tell me, I'll just imagine. I trust you puzzle, keep going! Make up animals if you have to, I'm all in!" "Holy cow, you mean CLARENCE DARROW contains CEDAR!!? Ha! YES, YES, tell me more!" The fill would occasionally make me want to hate this puzzle, but even the bad fill was hilarious to me. ANIL! RONI! ... I THE!? Go very bad or go home, I guess. But the theme was big enough, interesting enough, spectacular enough (in its beauty and its shagginess) to keep me from dwelling on the short fill for too long. And yes, only a couple of these trees are plausible Christmas trees (imagine having an elm in your living room?). And yes, "FIR YEW" (that is, "For You") doesn't really make sense as a message on a present. "Who's that one for, Betty?" "It's for 'You.'" "For me?" "No, for 'You.'" You see how that gets into Who's On First territory real quick. I guess the idea is that you might say the phrase as you hand the gift to its intended recipient. I don't know. I just know that this theme is ambitious and creative and if it doesn't quite stick all its landings, shrug, I'm good, wrap it up, I'll take it!

Bullets:

• 26A: Blue colorant obtained from the indigo plant (ANIL) — I always glitch on ANIL / ARIL, a crosswordese hazard if there ever was one.
• 28A: Brightly colored Mediterranean flowers (SUN ROSES) — I assume SUN ROSES are the natural habitat of the PORCUPINE FISH, as I've never heard of either of them. They sound very made-up. But I want to live in this world of random compound-phrase plants and animals. Hey, look, a BUTTER EEL! And a HAM TULIP! And ooh there's a KEYBOARD WEASEL! What a magical world we live in! I love nature!
• 79A: Eponymous British financier James ___ (BARCLAY) — me, after finally getting this: "Oh, the BARCLAYs Center guy. Huh, that's a guy? I always thought it was a vodka or a watch or something."
• 94A: Kind of cipher in which A becomes B, B becomes C, e.g. (CAESAR) — baffling. More baffling than PORCUPINE FISH. I'm sure I've come across this "cipher" type before—soaking in puzzleworld, I must have seen it somewhere—but I did not retain that information.
• 16D: Counterpart of a sub (DOM) — oh, that kind of sub. This puzzle is just full of amazing surprises.
• 66D: It has lots of secretaries (CABINET) — even after getting this answer, I was thinking "furniture." A "secretary" is a kind of desk, so I was like "why ... would you put desks in your cabinet?" But this puzzle can clearly do anything, so I just let it ride.
• 72D: Coolidge who sang the theme for "Octopussy" (RITA) — me: "What?" Also me: [starts trying to hum "Octopussy," ends up humming it to the tune of "Goldfinger"]. The song is not actually called "Octopussy," but "All Time High" (a song I do, actually, know).

• 29D: Great Dane of cartoons, informally (SCOOB) — "cartoons" made me think "comic strips," which had me wondering for a few seconds if Marmaduke's owners called him MARMA. You know, informally. 

Speaking of informal dogs, it's time for more 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 now. Note: PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME ANY MORE PET PICS, I'M ALL FULL UP FOR THIS YEAR, thank you.

Coco has murdered gingerbread Mr. Bill. Thank you for your service, Coco.

[Thanks, Cheryl!]

Lily basks by the fire, admiring her Christmas gift destruction. Good job, Lily. 

Meanwhile, Lily's housemate Jojo poses regally and judgmentally by the tree. Such Christmas gift destruction is beneath Jojo. How uncouth, Jojo thinks.

[Thanks, Jane!]

Find someone who looks at you like Maisie looks at this Christmas tree.

[Thanks, Caitlin!]

Finn came framed, and precaptioned

[Thanks, Jose!]

And finally, here's Tula Moose (actually, just Tula—I added the "Moose" part because that's what I would call her, Tula Moose!)

["But ... but I'm a reindeer"]
[Thanks, Pat and Lisa]

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. a couple very-last-minute Christmas gift suggestions. First, prolific Canadian constructors Desirée Pinner and Jeff Sinnock have a new geography-themed book of crosswords out called Where in the World: A Guess-The-Country Crossword Book. Jeff writes: "Where in the World? A Guess the Country Crossword Book takes the solver on a trip around the world. Each grid contains theme entries that hint to the culture, history, landmarks, and geography of a particular country. After (or during) solving, the solver guesses what the mystery country might be." I've enjoyed their movie- and music-themed crossword books in the past, so I'm sure this one will be equally doable and delightful.

Second, today's constructor, David Kwong, also has a new book out. I know because I own it (got it signed at ACPT earlier this year)! It's a magic book for kids called How to Fool Your Parents: 25 Brain-Breaking Magic Tricks. It's aimed at readers and aspiring magicians age 8-12. It's adorable but it's also the real deal. Actual magic theory and practical projects that any kid can do. Loaded with cartoons and illustrations. Get it here, or better yet, try an actual bookstore!

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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