There are 4 chair puzzles and 12 teacup puzzles. Of the teacup puzzles, there are four associated with the Mad Hatter and his tea, chinese oolong, four associated with the March Hare and his tea, moon tea, and four associated with the Dormouse and his tea, yule tea. The beast (Alice) has no puzzles associated with her -- just an empty saucer indicating that her puzzle is the meta.
The four characters are arranged around the table as follows, going clockwise: the beast, March Hare, Dormouse, Mad Hatter. While they can shift around seats, this order is always maintained. [This is stated clearly in the introduction text.]
The answers for each character are associated with three separate "calendars." The Mad Hatter (oolong tea) answers are associated with the Chinese Zodiac. The March Hare (moon tea) answers are associated with the Farmers' Almanac moons. The Dormouse (yule tea) answers are associated with the gifts during the 12 days of Christmas. The associations are as follows, and form an ordering from 1 to 12:
| Character | Answer | Association | Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dormouse | SUZANNE CROUGH | Partridge in a Pear Tree[1] | 1st Day of Christmas |
| March Hare | NOREASTER BLIZZARD | Snow Moon | Full Moon of February (2nd month) |
| Dormouse | COQ AU VIN | French Hen | 3rd Day of Christmas |
| March Hare | ALECIA MOORE | Pink Moon[2] | Full Moon of April (4th month) |
| March Hare | CHRYSANTHEMUM | Flower Moon | Full Moon of May (5th month) |
| Mad Hatter | RHINOCEROS VIPER | Year of the Snake | Year 6 of Chinese Zodiac |
| Dormouse | NATALIE PORTMAN | Swans-a-Swimming[3] | 7th Day of Christmas |
| Mad Hatter | BELGIAN FAWN | Year of the Goat[4] | Year 8 of the Chinese Zodiac |
| March Hare | PEARL HOMINY | Corn Moon | Full Moon of September (9th month) |
| Mad Hatter | CHANTICLEER | Year of the Rooster | Year 10 of the Chinese Zodiac |
| Mad Hatter | GERMAN SHEPHERD | Year of the Dog | Year 11 of the Chinese Zodiac |
| Dormouse | BUDDY RICH | Drummers drumming | 12th Day of Christmas |
The solution to the four chairs are arranged around the table as follows:
| 12 o' clock: | poTaTobeeTle |
| 3 o' clock: | sTraighTseTs |
| 6 o' clock: | TesTosTerone |
| 9 o' clock: | operaTorTesT |
Each of these words is 12 letters long. In addition, the letter T occurs in each place from 1 to 12 exactly once. To extract the final solution phrase, for each word, identify the relevant number from the calendar, then use the chairs to find which chair the character was sitting in, the determine which chair the beast was sitting in. Finally, take the appropriate letter from that word (3, 6, 9, or 12) to spell out the final answer, GIVE HIM A HAND.
| Answer | Number/T word/Chair | Character | Location of the beast when character is on associated chair | Index of the beast's location into answer word |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SUZANNE CROUGH | 1/Testosterone/6 o'clock | Dormouse | 12 o'clock | G |
| NOREASTER BLIZZARD | 2/sTraight sets/3 o'clock | March Hare | 12 o'clock | I |
| COQ AU VIN | 3/poTato beetle/12 o'clock | Dormouse | 6 o'clock | V |
| ALECIA MOORE | 4/tesTosterone/6 o'clock | March Hare | 3 o'clock | E |
| CHRYSANTHEMUM | 5/potaTo beetle/12 o'clock | March Hare | 9 o'clock | H |
| RHINOCEROS VIPER | 6/operaTor test/9 o'clock | Mad Hatter | 12 o'clock | I |
| NATALIE PORTMAN | 7/testosTerone/6 o'clock | Dormouse | 12 o'clock | M |
| BELGIAN FAWN | 8/straighTsets/3 o'clock | Mad Hatter | 6 o'clock | A |
| PEARL HOMINY | 9/operator Test/9 o'clock | March Hare | 6 o'clock | H |
| CHANTICLEER | 10/potato beeTle/12 o'clock | Mad Hatter | 3 o'clock | A |
| GERMAN SHEPHERD | 11/straight seTs/3 o'clock | Mad Hatter | 6 o'clock | N |
| BUDDY RICH | 12/operator tesT/9 o'clock | Dormouse | 3 o'clock | D |