Surprisingly, after a very busy Christmas the most popular puzzles at this time of the year are those with winter scenes. January, through April are very strong months for all puzzles especially Gibsons with their wonderully painted nostagic images. The Blacksmith Shop, Village Crossing and Keeping out the Cold are only a few 1000 piece winter scene puzzles with the snowy weather either being enjoyed as in Team Effort (500 pieces) or with families protecting themselves against the most northerly winter blasts. The 1000 piece Gibsons Christmas puzzle has proven to be the singular best selling puzzle from Gibsons. Due to his success, Marcello Conti, who designed the 2009 Christmas puzzle, has been commissioned to create the 2010 Christmas puzzle. It will be presented in the latter part of 2010.

Our new shipment of Gibsons puzzles for the fall and winter season is now in our warehouse and is shipping like mad. Easily the most popular range at this time of the year would be the several Christmas styles. G2009, Christmas Cheer stands head and shoulders above all other Christmas puzzles as the one to have. We are shippping the Christmas Cheer puzzle (1000 pieces) at about twelve times that one of any other title.

Jigsaw puzzles are available in many sizes but a thousand pieces remain the favorite. The normal layout is thirty eight pieces by twenty seven pieces and with a total of over one thousand pieces. Five hundred piece  puzzles are made twenty seven pieces wide by nineteen.

Various  jigsaw puzzles come in the shape of squares, circles, triangle and rectangles for toddlers, to one hundred pieces for older. For children they usually show suitable ages by the number and size of the pieces within. For puzzles with less pieces , youngsters will be building the puzzle. Most of these are made of durable materials that are easily wiped.

The more pieces to a  puzzle, the more time it takes to build. To add to the degree of difficulty of a jigsaw buy puzzles that are double-sided. These can be assembled from back or front. This adds  complexity to the assembly because the solver cannot be sure which side of the piece is right. This requires patience for the solver because there are many trial and errors before you get it right.

As summer tries to break winter’s hold all things related to that chilly season take a back seat in the consumer’s buying habits. Mix that seasonal effect with the overall cautious retail climate and you’ve got a recipe for slower jigsaw puzzle sales. Our retail customers who bought the new 2009 Gibsons selection have done predictably well with them and those who did not buy are anticipating a worse than normal summer season slowdown. Gibsons themselves have changed their release pattern. Rather than two new product release events (once in the spring and again in the fall) they are spreading their

new releases throughout the year.