Christmas Is NP Hard
Written by I Programmer   
Sunday, 21 December 2025

It is official - Xmas is NP hard. See exactly how and appreciate the value of holiday algorithms.

If you like xkcd then you would have liked Abstruse Goose, but alas it is no more. A scientific and deep-thinking cartoon site, it gave up silently around mid-2024. The domain name is now up for sale and there is no complete archive, but a few do remain at: 

https://lastwordonnothing.com/tag/abstruse-goose/

This example of Abstruse Googe humor was so apt for I Programmer that we had obtained permission to reproduce it for the Christmas season almost a decade ago.

If you are a computer scientist then there is no doubt that Xmas really is hard, NP Hard that is:

xmastree

To understand the concept of NP Hard see  NP & Co-NP, an extract from my book Programmer's Guide To Theory. 

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Last Updated ( Sunday, 21 December 2025 )