16

This puzzle is part of the Puzzling Stack Exchange Advent Calendar 2023. The accepted answer to this question will be awarded a bounty worth 50 reputation.

< Previous Door Next Door >

A Connect Wall is a set of sixteen words/proper nouns/phrases which can be broken into four groups of four related items. In this holiday-themed Connect Wall, the four categories can be combined to create my favorite Christmas carol, which is the answer to this puzzle.
BALANCE CAGE FROST GOOD
HORN KOB MANNING MASON
MILLS MIST OVERS RANCHER
ROGER SPARKS SWILLING THRESH
oAlt
  • 6,722
  • 2
  • 30
  • 59
Jeremy Dover
  • 27,440
  • 3
  • 66
  • 157

2 Answers2

14

The categories are

BALANCE GOOD RANCHER ROGER - words that can be preceded by JOLLY

KOB MIST OVERS THRESH - words which can take -OLD as a suffix

HORN MANNING MILLS SWILLING - surnames of great New Orleans SAINTs

CAGE FROST MASON SPARKS - surnames of famous NICHOLASs

and your favourite carol is of course

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

As for me...

... my little brain
Isn't very bright;
Choose for me, dear Santa Claus,
What you think is right!

Daniel S
  • 6,748
  • 20
  • 40
9

The four groups are:

Words that can come after "Jolly": ROGER, RANCHER, GOOD, BALANCE

Words that can have "old" added at the end: THRESH, OVERS, KOB, MIST

Famous Nicholas's: CAGE, MASON, FROST, SPARKS

People who played for the New Orleans Saints: MANNING, SWILLING, MILLS, HORN

Therefore, the Christmas carol is:

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas

pmacfarlane
  • 450
  • 2
  • 10