NEW Strands Today — Hints, Spangrams and Answers for Game #297 (Wednesday, December 25, 2024)

On December 25, 2024By Littum

Strands today: Quick menu

Need help with NYT Strands today? Today’s theme – “A visit from Santa Claus” – is a fitting Christmas theme, so perhaps you can draw inspiration from what is around you.

Below we have collected some useful tips for Strands #297, as well as the answers should it come to that. We’ll start with some clues before building up to the full answer for Strands #297, so read on if you need some help.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for Strands #297.

Today’s NYT Strand’s answer — Today’s theme and hints

The official theme of NYT Strands #297 is… “A visit from Santa Claus”.

And here’s an unofficial hint from me: “Little gifts to wake up to.”

If you’re still in the dark, here are some helpful words to give you those valuable clues:

USED
DONE
PLAYER
RAINY
SOON
PICK
CRANE

Still struggling? The spangram will give you a hint about the connecting word. Today it starts with S and ends with G.

Scroll down to find out what it is…

It’s STOCKING.

Dagens Strand’s answer

So what is today’s Strands response to game #297?

Drumroll, please…

ORANGE
COAL
SOCKS
SCARF
TOY
PUSHIE
CANDY
PENS

Thread #297

(Image credit: Alan Martin)

…and the spanframe was NATURE NAMES.

Thread #297

“A visit from Santa Claus”

Hello Strands fans, and Merry Christmas! Today’s puzzle is appropriately themed for those who find the time to play it, and it’s simple enough that it shouldn’t distract you from the joys of the day for too long.

When I found ORANGE in the lower left corner, it immediately clicked that this was all about stocking stuffers, but before I connected STOCKING’s spangram, I went in search of the classic naughty-child gift. Sure enough, I found a lump of COAL on the right side.

The spanframe then split the grid in half, making cleanup fairly seamless. I found SOCKS in the upper right corner, with TOWEL directly below it. Then I noticed TOYS in the top left corner, with PLUSHIE below to complete that side of the board.

Two answers remained to be found on the other side. CANDY was spelled backwards from the bottom up, leaving just PENS spelled downwards to complete the puzzle in time to return to some well-deserved Christmas trash TV.

Yesterday’s Strand’s answer

Are you reading this in a later time zone? You can find the entire article about yesterday’s Strand’s answer for game #296 right here.