The key in this riddle, as in life, is the wine. Specifically, count the wine glasses on each line.
Notice that on the third line, there are two wine glasses, on the fourth line there is only one. Aside from this making you sad, fewer wine glasses changes the equation if you are thinking of each wine glass as a separate unit.
So each snowflake is 10, because 10 + 10 + 10 = 30.
Then, each candy cane is worth 5, because 10 + 5 + 5 = 20.
And then, each wine glass is worth 1, because 5 + (1+1) + (1+1) = 9.
So the final equation is 5 + 1 x 10= ?
If you remember to “Please Excuse Your Dear Aunt Sally” (in case you’ve forgotten, that’s the order of operations acronym: parentheses and other grouping symbols, exponents, multiplication and division, addition and subtraction), you get this simple math problem:
5 + 10 = 15.
