Christmas through the Decades: free large-print word searches

Pour a cup of cocoa and pull up a chair. Here are three free Christmas puzzles, one for each decade: a Fifties Christmas, a Sixties Christmas and a Seventies Christmas. Bubble lights and paper chains, aluminum trees and color wheels, ceramic trees and the big holiday catalog. Every grid has a little bit of Christmas past hiding in it.

They're printed in big, friendly 22pt letters, just like the puzzles in my books, and each one comes with its own answer key.

Download all three Christmas puzzles (PDF, 6 pages)

The pack has the three puzzles first and the three answer keys at the back, so you can hand out pages 1 to 3 and keep the answers for yourself.

What's inside

• Three 14 x 14 puzzles in large 22pt print, the same grid size as the books
• 15 words in each puzzle, each with its own tick box
• Every word reads forwards: across, down or diagonally, never backwards
• An answer key for each puzzle, with every word circled
• US Letter size (A4 tips below)

Only want one decade? Each puzzle is also here on its own (2 pages: the puzzle and its answer key).

Let's talk about Christmas past: conversation starters

For a holiday reminiscing group, or just a quiet afternoon with Mom or Grandpa:

1. The tree: real or artificial? Did anyone you know have an aluminum tree with a color wheel, or a ceramic tree with the little plastic lights?
2. Decorating: were you a tinsel-one-strand-at-a-time family or a throw-it-on family? Who got to put the topper on?
3. The wish list: what was the one toy you hoped to find under the tree? Did you get it?
4. The catalog: do you remember circling things in the big Christmas catalog? What did you circle?
5. Christmas on TV: which holiday TV specials or variety shows did your family gather round to watch?
6. From the kitchen: what was always on the table at Christmas? Plum pudding, spritz cookies, a cheese ball, popcorn balls?

For a group: do one decade a week through December, or do all three in one session and ask everyone which decade their best Christmas memory comes from.

Printing tips

• Print at 100%. In the print box, choose "Actual size" or "100%" rather than "Fit". That keeps the letters at their full 22pt size.
• Paper: the PDFs are set up for US Letter (8.5 x 11 inches). Nothing is printed closer than half an inch to the edges, so home printers won't cut anything off.
• In the UK or Europe? They print fine on A4. Choose "Actual size" and each puzzle sits in the middle of the page with a little extra white space top and bottom. If anything looks tight, "Fit to page" works too. Everything shrinks only slightly.
• Only need the puzzles? In the 6-page pack, print pages 1 to 3 and keep pages 4 to 6 (the answers) for yourself.
• Making copies for a group? Print one, check it, then print the rest. A heavier paper and a dark pencil or felt-tip are easy on the eyes.

More puzzles like these

I'm Sunny Porter, and I made these puzzles. If you enjoyed them, there are 100 more puzzles in each of my books, the Nostalgia Large-Print Word Search for Seniors series, one book for each decade. Same big 22pt print, one puzzle per page, answers in the back, and each book has a Christmas puzzle of its own. $9.99 each in paperback.

Also free: Fabulous Fifties word search · Groovy Sixties word search · Seventies Flashback word search

Free to print and share for personal, family, library and activity-group use. Puzzles by Sunny Porter.