Christmas Word Search

The puzzle loads with 30 festive words ready to find: short ones like ELF, JOY and ICE for younger children, working up to longer entries like GINGERBREAD and NUTCRACKER for stronger readers. Click the first letter of a word in the grid, drag through the letters, then release on the last letter. Found words are crossed off the list and a tally shows progress. The default 12x12 grid suits children aged 6 and up; bump it to 15x15 or 18x18 for a bigger challenge.

The difficulty selector changes how words are placed. Easy mode hides words horizontally and vertically only, which is right for a Year 1 or Year 2 classroom. Medium adds diagonals (Year 3 upwards). Hard adds backwards placement, which suits ages 9 and up or anyone who finishes the medium version too quickly. Switch to a 20x20 grid only if you have a strong colour printer at home, since 20x20 grids print quite small on standard A4.

Hit the download button to grab a printable PDF with the grid on page one and the word list on page two. The free version watermarks the page corner; the premium download (£1.99) removes the watermark and includes an answer key with each word circled, which is the version teachers usually want for marking. The PDF prints cleanly at A4 with margins set for both UK and US letter paper.

For a school Christmas party, generate one puzzle and print 30 copies rather than letting children share. The medium difficulty version typically takes a Year 3 child 8 to 12 minutes, which is the right length to fill the gap between the nativity rehearsal and home time. For older classes (Year 5 and 6), try the [Halloween Word Search](/halloween-word-search) at hard difficulty as an autumn-term equivalent.