Christmas Word Search for Kids: Cookies, Stockings and Snowmen

The words in this puzzle are the ones children say all December: the cookie left for Santa, the bow on a present, the stocking by the fireplace, the reindeer on the roof, the snowman in the yard, the sled on the hill and the jingle of the bells.

Two of the words, reindeer and stocking, are eight letters long, so each one fills a whole row of the 8x8 grid from edge to edge. Three words read from right to left, which gives kids a first taste of backwards words without any diagonals.

Kids Christmas Vocabulary: 8 Words to Find

Words run across and down; 3 of the 8 read backwards. The longest words are Reindeer and Stocking, with 8 letters each.

Bow: A decorative knot of ribbon with two loops, tied on top of a present.
Cookie: A small sweet baked treat. A gingerbread man is a cookie cut in the shape of a person.
Jingle: The light ringing sound of small bells, as in Jingle Bells.
Present: A gift, wrapped and given to someone.
Reindeer: Arctic deer that, in the stories, pull Santa's sleigh through the sky. In North America the wild ones are called caribou.
Sled: A small vehicle on runners for sliding down snowy hills.
Snowman: A figure built from large balls of snow, with a carrot nose and coal eyes.
Stocking: A large sock hung by the fireplace for Santa to fill with small gifts.

How to Solve the Kids Christmas Word Search

Find the two eight-letter words first: "reindeer" fills a row reading normally, and "stocking" fills another reading backwards, from right to left. "Cookie" and "present" read backwards too. "Jingle", with the only J, and "snowman", with the only M, read across. "Bow" and "sled" are the two words that run down.

Christmas Word Games for Kids

Hide eight paper stockings around the room, each with one word from the list, and let kids collect them before solving.
Ask children to sort the words into things you can eat, things you can ride and things you can hang.
Use it as a quiet game for the evening of December 24, while everyone waits for bedtime.