Today's Connections Hints & Answers For December 25, 2024 (Puzzle #563)

If you are not feeling strong on today’s Connections puzzle, that is okay because neither were we. It was a challenge to get today’s Christmas puzzle up and going, and an even harder challenge to finish it. Regardless, there are ways around these challenges if you know where to look, and fortunately for you, we now know what these places are. To help you avoid the pitfalls, we have the tips and tricks you need to solve the puzzle.

If you want something a little different that’s not too big and not too small but just right, you can check out the NYT’s Mini Crossword puzzle. Goldilocks herself would likely approve of the size of this one, as it is a 5x5 grid with no frills or fancy tricks to frustrate you as you attempt to solve it for hours. Instead, it is just big enough to satiate your appetite for this class puzzle-type, and you will be well on your way with the rest of your day while those trying to solve the big one are still struggling.

Today's Connections Category Hints

DECEMBER 25 #563

Some of the meanings of the words in this puzzle I was completely unaware of before attempting to solve it. I guess for Christmas I received the gift of learning, which I was not expecting. However, there were some I was familiar with as well which made it a weird balance between being very confident and being frustrated with my own incompetence. It’s something that Connections often brings out, but to help you overcome those feelings yourself, here are four hints:

• One category is about things that you would find by looking up
• One category is about a group of people who share a similar hobby
• One category is about names used to describe one variety of certain animals
• One category is about people that share a similar background on popular media

Those hints may be the only nudge you need, but if you are looking for more, there are plenty more hints and spoilers to be found down below.

Today's Connections Answers

DECEMBER 25 #563

Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained

This category was a bit of a breeze for me and one I felt fairly confident on. All of these are relatively orb-shaped things that exist in the sky. However, SAGITTARIUS could be the one word that throws you off on this particular category, and it would be entirely understandable. I actually solved the next category first, so I didn’t run into that problem, but it is one I could see happening. However, you could figure this out without the next category simply by excluding the one word that isn’t a singular object in the night sky.

Green Answers: Revealed & Explained

This one also felt nice and simple when I was solving it. I’m a fairly big ROBIN HOOD fan as in I have read a lot of books, studied the original stories, watched or read a lot of retellings, and even wrote some myself. Given that, it caught my attention right away. I saw HAWKEYE shortly after and was able to put the two together recognizing them both as archers. I would have liked to see a Legolas here, but I suppose CUPID and SAGITTARIUS will have to do as a substitute.

Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained

This is where things go tricky, and it was again frustrating as I continued to see “one away” but didn’t know where I was going wrong. I had some combination of all of the female-leaning words in the last 8 together multiple times but didn’t know where to draw the final line. As it turned out, JENNY was the missing piece and the one I don’t think I would have gotten. I had no idea that donkeys could be referred to as thus and have never heard it used that way before, which I consider to be a great shame.

Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained

I have only ever watched skits of SNL later on YouTube or something similar, so it was no great surprise that I would have never grouped these four together. Given VIXEN and the other celestial objects, I had FEY very much down as “fey folk” rather than a single person, and I had no idea what STRONG was doing in the puzzle at all. I figured it had to be a name, but googling “Shannon” out of context was unlikely to get me anywhere at all so I just had to go for it and didn’t quite make it.

Other Games Like Connections

If you are still in the puzzling mood, check out a new one listed in the box below as a Christmas treat.