A thank-you for your church Burns Night supper team: the haggis piped in, neeps and tatties for eighty and the Selkirk Grace said before the soup, as a jigsaw with your note at the end

Written by the team behind Puzzlify. Puzzlify is our product, so weigh what follows with that in mind. We've tried to make this useful even if you never use it. We're not affiliated with any church, diocese, kirk session, charity or community organisation.

Burns Night falls on or around 25 January, the birthday of the poet Robert Burns. Plenty of churches, in Scotland and well beyond it, hold a Burns supper in the hall: a bowl of soup, the haggis carried in behind a piper (or a phone playing bagpipes), the Address to a Haggis, neeps and tatties, a toast or two and a ceilidh if the floor allows. It is cheerful and a bit chaotic, and it only works because a small team spends the week before ordering haggis, peeling a mountain of swede and potatoes, and setting out trestle tables in a cold hall. This short guide is about thanking them.

Here are a few ideas, with an honest look at whether a photo puzzle is a good fit.

What the Burns supper team actually does

Every church does it differently, but the job often includes:

• selling tickets after services and keeping a list of dietary needs, including a vegetarian haggis
• ordering haggis from a butcher and collecting it on the day
• peeling, boiling and mashing neeps and tatties in quantities nobody believes
• making a pot of soup, often cock-a-leekie or Scotch broth
• finding a piper, or someone brave enough to recite the Address
• setting tables with tartan runners, candles and printed menus
• running a raffle, a quiz or a short ceilidh with a caller
• washing up and stacking chairs until well after the last toast

Why it's worth saying

A Burns supper raises money and brings in people who might not come on a Sunday, but the kitchen crew rarely sits down. They eat standing up, if at all. A note that names something specific, such as the perfect mash, or the moment the haggis came through the door, tells the team the work was noticed.

When to say it

The week after the supper is ideal, while the tartan runners are still drying. A word after church is enough; a message or card in early February lands just as well.

What makes a good photo

• the haggis on its platter, carried in through the hall doors
• a long trestle table set with tartan, candles and menus
• a big pan of mashed neeps steaming on the hall cooker
• the piper or reciter mid-flow, taken from behind the tables
• the raffle prizes lined up on the hatch
• the empty hall afterwards, chairs stacked, one candle still lit

Follow your church's photo policy and keep faces out of the frame unless people have agreed. A laden table or the steaming kitchen usually tells the story better than a group shot, and both make a colourful puzzle.

Choosing a piece count

Tartan is busy and lovely to sort, so 80 or 130 pieces often works well here.

Note examples

• "Thank you for the best mash in the parish."
• "The haggis came in, the hall cheered. Thank you for making that happen."
• "Thank you for peeling all those neeps."
• "A warm night in a cold month. Thank you."
• "Thank you for the soup, the tables and the washing up."

What it costs, plainly

The preview is free, so you can see how it looks before deciding anything. Publishing the link costs one credit (€3.99), or less per puzzle with a bundle. It's a digital puzzle, not a printed or cardboard one, so there's nothing to post. The person receiving it doesn't need an account or an app; they open the link and your note appears when the last piece goes in. If a card is enough, it is.

Ideas that are not a puzzle

• a card signed by everyone at one of the tables
• naming the team in the February newsletter or the notices
• staying behind to wash up next year
• a good potato masher or a large, sturdy pan for the hall kitchen
• offering to sell tickets so the cooks can focus on cooking
• asking the team what would make the night easier, and sorting it

Where Puzzlify fits

Puzzlify turns a personal photo into a private digital jigsaw that you send as a link. It isn't a printed puzzle, and it isn't a public puzzle board: only the people you send it to can open it. It's one option among many, and it works best when the photo means something to the person receiving it. Please don't confuse it with puzzlify.io, Puzzlit, Puzzly or Puzzify, which are different things.

If a photo puzzle feels right as well, choose the haggis on its way in, the long set table or the steaming kitchen, pick a piece count that suits them, and write the note in your own words. You can make one here.

Written by the small team behind Puzzlify (info@puzzlify.app). Not legal, religious, food safety, allergy, safeguarding, privacy, photography permission or gift policy advice.