Today’s NYT Strand’s tips, answers and help for December 24 #296

Looking for latest Strand’s answer? Click here for our daily Strands tip, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Connections puzzles.

Today’s Beaches has a fun topic. I used to watch the CBS soap opera The Bold and The Beautiful and it always struck me how many of the characters had names that were also things in nature – Ridge, Thorne and Brooke being the main ones. So this was an entertaining theme for me. If you need more hints and answers for today’s Strands puzzle, read on.

I also go into depth with the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, and Mini Crossword answers, visit CNET’s NYT puzzle page.

Read more: NEW Connections Round 1: These are the 5 hardest puzzles so far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Dagens Strand’s theme is: What the hell…?

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Mother Nature.

Clues to unlock hints in the game

Your goal is to find hidden words that match the theme of the puzzle. If you get stuck, find the words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get these tips, but any word with four or more letters that you find will work:

• HEAL, LEAN, VEER, TINE, VINE, MANE, RIVE, MEAL, HAN, ALES, HANS, ROOK, CLL, VINA, RILL

Answers to today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that are related to the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that extends from one side of the puzzle to the other. Once you get them all (I originally thought there were always eight, but learned the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the non-spangram responses:

• HOLLY, BROOK, RIVER, LAUREL, WILLOW, CLEMENTINE

Dagens Strand’s spangram

Dagens Strand’s spangram is NATURAL NAMES. To find it, start with N, which is three letters to the right of the top row, and turn down.