This Christmas word search opens with 22 holiday words already in the grid: Santa and his Reindeer, the Sleigh and the Chimney, Stocking, Wreath, Tinsel and Garland, a Nutcracker and a glass of Eggnog. The words run across, down and diagonally in a Bold sans font that stays crisp on a home printer, and the answer key prints on the page after the puzzle.
Make it fit your crowd
- Young children: set Difficulty to Easy and Grid size to 12 × 12, then delete the long words (Gingerbread, Nutcracker, Mistletoe). Short words in a small grid are found by spotting the first letter, which is exactly the skill a five-year-old is practicing.
- A family table: keep Medium and turn on 2 puzzles per page under Printing. One sheet of paper gives two placemat puzzles, with a dashed line to cut along.
- Adults: choose Hard. Words now run backwards and upwards too, and half of the filler letters come from the holiday words themselves, so stray S, A and N letters near SANTA keep everyone guessing.
Ideas for the holidays
Slip a puzzle into each Christmas card for a child, or print a stack of different versions for a classroom party so neighbors can’t copy. At a gathering, hand out the same version to everyone and race: first to find all 22 words gets the last cookie. Want a matching game? The same holiday words make a set of Christmas bingo cards.
The puzzle is made in your browser and your words are never uploaded. New puzzle shuffles the grid as often as you like before you print.
The 22 words in this puzzle
Santa · Reindeer · Sleigh · Stocking · Chimney · Snowman · Mistletoe · Wreath · Ornament · Tinsel · Candy cane · Gingerbread · Carols · Presents · Elves · Holly · Garland · North Pole · Nutcracker · Eggnog · Fireplace · Jingle bells