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Here’s the Solution grid..

The grid had a “Christmas theme” and the title was a pun that could be read as “A cracker for you all..” The theme words have been highlighted..

Here are the Solutions, Annotations & the names of the Contributors:

Across:

1 DOWNTIMES – Spoonerism – DOWN TIMES – TOWN DIMES – BY Lakshmi Vaidyanathan
6 MYRRH – Charade – M(-ar)Y R(-oge)R H, – By SSv Avtaar
9 PRANCER – Anagram – (RACEPATRON-TOA)* – By Martin DeMello
10 NETBALL – Chanagram – TEN*+BA+LL – By V.M.Ajeesh
11 EGGNOG – Charade – GONE<<(GG) – By Heidi Schroeder
12 NATIVITY – CA &lit – VATICAN CITY* = NATIVITY + ACC* – By SSv Avtaar
14 SLED – CD – By Brian Dungate
15 PARLIAMENT – Charade – Parent<<LIAM<< – By Sowmya Ramkumar
18 SCURRILOUS – Anagram – CURIOUS*< 20 AURA – &lit Acrostic – By Sowmya Ramkumar
23 COUNTERS – DD – By Aashwina Mouli
24 FENCES – Charade – F SCENE* – By Balaji Agoram
26 IKEBANA – Anagram – INABAKE* – By Uma Raghavan
27 AVOCADO – Acrostic – By Amrita Majumdar
28 ADEPT – Semi &lit – pated* – By Ratnakar Sonthi
29 EPISCOPAL – Acrostic – By Viresh Ratnakar

Down:

1 DEPRESSES – Charade – D(EP)RESSES – By Ramki Krishnan
2 WRANGLE – Anagram – WAGNER*< 3 TYCOON – HP – TIE COON – By Bhargavi Suryanarayanan
4 MARY – Charade – MA(R)Y – By Arun Kumar
5 SANTA CLAUS – CD – By Akshay Bhandarkar
6 MYTHICAL – Acrostic – By Loks Subrahmanyam
7 REALISE – Charade – RE+PENALISE-PEN – By Manish Misra
8 HOLLY – Charade – HO(L)LY – By Viveca Bhatkal
13 TAILORMADE – Anagram – MARITALODE* – By Mona Sogal
16 TOADSTOOL – Charade – T(-ouris)T<<DOSA*+LOO<< – By Ramki Krishnan
17 PROTRACT – Rev. Telescopic – By Akshay Bhandarkar
19 UKULELE – Charade – UK+U+L+E< 21 UNCLASP – Charade – UN+CL+A+SP – By Supriya Mithal
22 HEROIC – Charade – H+EROTIC-T – By Manish Misra
23 CHINA – Telescopic – By Heidi Schroeder
25 MAGI – Charade – M(AG)I – By Martin DeMello

A special thanks from me and Brian to all our contributors and to all those who participated.