Christmas Word Search: 59 Words, From the Nativity to the North Pole
This Christmas word search draws from 59 words: Santa and his reindeer, the tree and everything hung on it, the presents, the food, and the Christmas story itself. Every New Puzzle builds a new grid, so you can play one a day from December 1 to Christmas Eve and get a different grid every time. It starts on Easy, with words that read across and down. The printable pack makes a whole stack of puzzles for the holidays, with the answers at the back.
🎁 The Full Christmas List
Each puzzle takes 8, 12 or 18 of these, depending on the size.
- Santa's side: Santa, Reindeer, Sleigh, Elf, North Pole, Workshop, Toys, Chimney, Stocking
- Decorating: Tree, Evergreen, Pine Cone, Ornament, Tinsel, Garland, Lights, Wreath, Holly, Mistletoe, Poinsettia, Star, Angel, Candle, Bells, Snow Globe
- Presents: Present, Gift, Ribbon, Bow, Wrapping Paper
- Treats: Candy Cane, Gingerbread, Cookies, Eggnog, Cocoa, Sugarplum, Chestnuts, Feast
- Outside: Snowman, Snowflake, Sled, Mittens, Fireplace
- The story and the season: Nativity, Manger, Shepherd, Advent, December, Christmas Eve, Yule, Noel
- Songs and feelings: Carol, Jingle, Merry, Joy, Peace, Nutcracker, Family, Tradition
⭐ The Nativity Words
Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus, and several words on the list come from that story as the Bible tells it. In the Gospel of Luke, Mary and Joseph travel to Bethlehem, and the baby is laid in a manger because there is no room at the inn. A manger is a feeding trough for animals; the word comes from the French for "to eat". An angel tells shepherds in the fields nearby, and they come to see him. A scene of that night, with figures of the family, the animals and the shepherds, is called a Nativity, from the Latin for "birth". Noel grew from the same Latin root, through French.
Advent means "arrival". It is the season of waiting that starts on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Advent calendars, with a little door to open each day, began in Germany.
🌿 Where the Decorations Came From
- Poinsettia: this plant grows wild in Mexico. It is named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States minister to Mexico, who sent some home in the 1820s. Its bright red "petals" are really leaves; the flowers are the tiny yellow buds in the middle.
- Mistletoe: a plant that grows on the branches of trees and draws water from them. Kissing under it was a custom in England by the 1700s.
- Yule: an old midwinter festival of the Germanic peoples of northern Europe, older than Christmas there. The Yule log comes from it.
- Tree: decorating an evergreen tree indoors is a German custom. It caught on in Britain and America after newspapers printed a picture of Queen Victoria's family around their tree in 1848.
🦌 Reindeer, Nutcrackers and Sugarplums
Reindeer are real animals of the far north, and the same species that North Americans call caribou. They are the only deer where the females usually grow antlers too. The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky's Christmas ballet, was first performed in St. Petersburg in December 1892, and its most famous dancer is the Sugar Plum Fairy. An old-fashioned sugarplum was a small round sugar candy that usually had no plum in it at all.
📏 Which Words Fit Which Board
A word only appears on a board big enough to hold it, and two-word names are run together: Christmas Eve hides as CHRISTMASEVE.
| Size | Words that can appear | Left out |
|---|---|---|
| Small 9 × 9 | 54 of 59 | Gingerbread, Nutcracker, Poinsettia, Wrapping Paper, Christmas Eve |
| Medium 12 × 12 | 58 of 59 | Wrapping Paper |
| Large 15 × 15 | All 59 | Nothing |
No word on this list hides inside another, so any two of them can share a puzzle.
🔔 Tips for the Christmas List
Joy and Jingle are the only words here with a J, so on a board that has either, a J is the fastest letter to hunt. V shows up in Nativity, Evergreen, Advent and Christmas Eve, and K in Stocking, Cookies, Workshop and Nutcracker. The list is also rich in doubled letters: reindEEr, riBBon, hoLLy, cOOkies, miTTens, beLLs, eGGnog, evergrEEn, trEE, meRRy, wraPPing paper. Find the pair, then read outward. More tricks, and what each level changes, are on the main word search page.
🎄 Ideas for the Holidays
- A December countdown: print a pack of 10 and slip one into an Advent calendar pocket every few days.
- The last day before the break: a class pack has a new puzzle for each child, with the name line on and the answers at the back.
- Christmas Eve waiting: a Large Hard puzzle has 18 words in every direction, which keeps older children busy while the cookies bake.
- Stocking stuffer: roll a few printed puzzles with a pencil and tie them with ribbon.
Merry Christmas! 🎄 Keep the season going with the winter word search, or look back at the Thanksgiving word search.