Finished! Thanks for putting me out of my misery with the damned light source. I think I probably just mistyped 'x mantelpiece' originally (I'm a terrible typist - my transcripts mainly consist of me entering typos several times before getting the command right) and then assumed there was nothing interesting to see there.
With the pantry: the extra hints are handy, and I guess that you are still planning to implement a proper 'HINT' command (I'm amused at your holding message: elves don't need hints, but some humans certainly do!). REACH was something else that I attempted (REACH SHELF, REACH GINGERBREAD, REACH UP) that could be another queue for a hint ('You can't reach the top shelf - you'll need to find another way of getting up there').
I'm pleased to have got to the end of it at last - it's top notch Christmas fun.