Kate

@Marshall Walthew I kind of wish the solve wouldn’t be accepted without the full rebus entry. It was disappointing to solve so quickly and miss the trick.

@Andrzej I have a work colleague named Campbell who goes by Cam, so that’s immediately what I thought of. I have known Camerons who went by Cam but never any who went by Ron. Every Ron I’ve known was a Ronald.

@Thor my downfall is usually a typo that takes me a couple of minutes to find.

@Isabeau I recognized the balloons as balloons but also thought the party hats were Christmas trees until I looked at the comments.

@Anita Q*Bert was the clue that broke open the puzzle for me. Spent many hours playing it on the Atari my parents bought us for Christmas in 1984. Good times!

@Isabeau I also thought it was odd that two of the themed answers were actual types of parties but the 3rd is just a pun.

@Niall Sunday puzzles always have a theme - figuring it out is the tough part. More than once I’ve solved a puzzle but not understood the theme until reading the column afterwards!