PartyGrids

Christmas Crossword

Sixteen Christmas answers, from the elf and the workshop to a snow angel, with short clues a second-grader can read. Tick the word bank for younger children, leave it off for fourth grade, and keep the answer key for yourself.

Your crossword

One per line: the answer, a colon, then the clue. Spaces in an answer are fine; the grid leaves them out.16 answers
Clues
Adds “(5,3)” to the clue for an answer like Milky Way
Lists every answer under the clues, for an easier puzzle
Printing
Paper
A separate page with the grid filled in

Preview · 14 x 16 · 16 answers placed

Christmas Crossword

Across

  1. 1The shape you leave by lying on your back in a fresh drift and sweeping your arms and legs (4,5)
  2. 5A decoration that hangs from a branch of the tree
  3. 6A Christmas song, often sung by a group going door to door
  4. 7A sled pulled by animals across the snow
  5. 9The twelfth month of the year, when Christmas comes
  6. 10A small helper who makes toys in Christmas stories
  7. 11Antlered animals said to pull a flying sled in Christmas stories
  8. 13Hot ___, a chocolate drink for a cold day
  9. 14Warm covers for your hands, with one space for the thumb

Down

  1. 1A long sock hung up on Christmas Eve to be filled with small gifts
  2. 2A room where things like toys are built by hand
  3. 3A tree, like a pine or a fir, that keeps its needles all year
  4. 4Small ones jingle; big ones ring out from a tower
  5. 6The tall pipe that carries smoke up from a fireplace
  6. 8A ring of green branches hung on a door
  7. 12A spike of ice hanging from the edge of a roof

Who it is for

Second to fourth grade, and any child at the family table who can read a short sentence. Every clue is one line in everyday words, no answer is longer than nine letters, and most are things a child can picture: mittens, a stocking, an icicle hanging from the roof. One clue is a fill-in-the-blank, the easiest kind to start on.

Every answer crosses at least one other, so the short answers hand out letters for the long ones. A child who knows elf and carol has a start on the words that cross them, and a wrong guess shows up when a letter won't fit.

At school and at home

  • The last week of term. Between concert rehearsals and the class party, a crossword is a quiet twenty minutes that still counts as reading.
  • A literacy centre. Leave a stack at the table with the answer key in an envelope, so a group can check its own grids.
  • Christmas Eve. At home, one puzzle and a pencil for each child fills the long evening before bed.
  • Two generations. A grandparent reads the clues and a grandchild writes the letters. It works better than it sounds, and both of them get something out of it.

Easier or harder

For second grade, tick "Add a word bank" and read the clues aloud together. To make it shorter, delete the lines for ornament, workshop, evergreen, December, icicle and snow angel. The ten answers left (reindeer, sleigh, stocking, chimney, wreath, elf, mittens, carol, cocoa and bells) still link into one small grid.

For fourth grade and up, leave the word bank off and untick "Show word lengths for phrases" so snow angel isn't given away as two words. Add three harder answers with clues of your own, such as poinsettia, nutcracker and gingerbread; all nineteen still fit. Press Shuffle for a second layout if two tables might share answers.

Printing

The puzzle prints on one page, grid on top and clues underneath, with the word bank below them when it is ticked. The answer key comes on a page of its own, so you can print a class set of page one and keep a single key. Only the answer squares are outlined, which leaves plenty of white paper around the grid for children who finish early to decorate.

The 16 answers and their clues

The grid is 14 x 16, with 9 answers across and 7 down. Edit an answer or a clue above and the puzzle is rebuilt as you type; Shuffle gives another layout of the same answers.

Show the answers and clues
Reindeer
Antlered animals said to pull a flying sled in Christmas stories
Sleigh
A sled pulled by animals across the snow
Stocking
A long sock hung up on Christmas Eve to be filled with small gifts
Chimney
The tall pipe that carries smoke up from a fireplace
Wreath
A ring of green branches hung on a door
Ornament
A decoration that hangs from a branch of the tree
Elf
A small helper who makes toys in Christmas stories
Workshop
A room where things like toys are built by hand
Mittens
Warm covers for your hands, with one space for the thumb
Carol
A Christmas song, often sung by a group going door to door
Evergreen
A tree, like a pine or a fir, that keeps its needles all year
Cocoa
Hot ___, a chocolate drink for a cold day
December
The twelfth month of the year, when Christmas comes
Bells
Small ones jingle; big ones ring out from a tower
Icicle
A spike of ice hanging from the edge of a roof
Snow angel
The shape you leave by lying on your back in a fresh drift and sweeping your arms and legs
Printable Christmas Crossword and answer key: a 14 x 16 numbered grid with clues for 16 answers, among them Bells, Carol and Chimney.
This puzzle with two answers filled in. The answer key comes on a page of its own.

Frequently asked questions

Can a second-grader do it alone?

Most can with the word bank ticked. They read a clue, count the squares, and look for a word of that length in the bank, which turns the puzzle into careful reading and counting rather than spelling from memory. Without the bank, expect second-graders to need a hand with evergreen, December and icicle, and to sail through elf, bells and cocoa.

Our class celebrates different holidays. Can it be a winter puzzle?

Yes. Delete the lines for reindeer, stocking, ornament, elf, workshop and carol, change the December clue to "The last month of the year", and add winter answers with clues of your own, such as "Scarf: You wrap it round your neck in the cold", "Snowball: You pack one in your gloves and throw it in a winter fight" and "Blizzard: A snowstorm with strong winds". The thirteen answers still link into one grid. Change the title to Winter Crossword before you print.

Why does one clue have a blank in it?

"Hot ___, a chocolate drink for a cold day" is a fill-in-the-blank clue, the easiest kind for young solvers, because the missing word is one they have heard many times. It is a good first clue to point a struggling reader to. If your class needs more help, rewrite two or three other clues the same way, such as "Jingle ___, a well-known winter song" for bells.

Can I add the words from our own class party?

Yes. Type each one on a new line with a colon and a clue, such as "Cookies: What we decorated on the last day of term". The grid is rebuilt as you type, and any answer that can't be linked in is named under the puzzle. If you have the words but no clues, type the answers alone, open "Get answers and clues with AI" and press "Write clues for answers without one"; read the clues it writes before you print.

Is there Christmas bingo or a word search too?

Both. Christmas bingo has fifty words and plays the whole class at once, and the Christmas word search hides twenty words for grades two to five. The crossword is the one that checks spelling and meaning, so it makes a good first activity before the other two.

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