CHRISTMAS CONNECTIONS

Christmas Connections is a festive twist on the word-grouping puzzle you know and love: 16 words, 4 hidden categories and only 4 mistakes. Every board is wrapped in Christmas – reindeer and carols, holiday films and Christmas dinner, snowmen, Santa around the world and plenty of tricky wordplay.

There are 24 hand-made Christmas puzzles, so a fresh board is waiting for you every day of the holiday season. Want more? Press New Game and the game mixes categories from the whole Christmas set.

How to play Christmas Connections

• Read all 16 words and look for four groups of four that share something in common.
• Tap four words and press Submit. A correct group locks in and shows its category.
• Some groups are easy to spot, others are wordplay: a hidden word, or a missing word that completes a phrase, like ___ STAR or SNOW___.
• You have 4 mistakes. Use Deselect to clear your choice and New Game for a new board.

What kind of categories will you meet?

Expect Santa’s reindeer, carols and Christmas hits, holiday movies, the Twelve Days of Christmas, tree decorations, winter weather and festive food. Watch out for red herrings: a word that looks like it belongs at the North Pole may fit a completely different group, and every puzzle has exactly one solution.

Tips for festive solving

• Start with the group you are most sure about – every solved group makes the rest easier.
• If a word fits two groups, that is usually the trap. Find the group that has no other option first.
• Try putting a word in front of or after each tile, and look inside the longer words.

FAQ

Is Christmas Connections free?

Yes. Christmas Connections is 100% free, needs no sign-up and works on phones, tablets and computers.

How many Christmas puzzles are there?

There are 24 hand-made Christmas puzzles – as many as the doors on an Advent calendar – and a different one is waiting for you every day. Press New Game to mix categories from the whole Christmas set and keep playing.

How many mistakes can I make?

You can make four mistakes. After the fourth wrong guess the board is revealed and you can start a new game.

Is this the New York Times Connections game?

No. Christmas Connections is an independent puzzle made for Connections.Games, inspired by the popular word-grouping format. All categories and words are original.

More games

Play the classic Connections game in Easy or Hard mode, try Halloween Connections, or guess the link in five clues in Pinpoint.