A clever clue, but one which leads to my all-time top-of-the-list hate words. If that is in the Times I shan't bother opening it. In fact, I'm off to the newsagent to swap it for the Telegraph!
There is a word game called Crambo. If you replace the "a" for "answer" with "i" for "one" you get Crimbo, a blasphemous derogatory term for Christmas, i.e. "present" day.