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Christmas word mazes

Four Christmas word mazes, from ELF on a 6 by 8 grid to MERRY CHRISTMAS on 12 by 15, each with its answer key on a page of its own.

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Your worksheet

Kind of maze
2 to 30 letters. Spaces and punctuation are fine; only the letters go in the grid. It stays on this device.
Squares across by squares down.
Difficulty

The other squares use letters that are not in the message, so the route never forks.

Letters
Border
Answer key
Raise this to put a different one on every page.
Up to 40 characters, printed on the sheet and its answer key. Leave it empty for the title shown.

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Your word maze

Christmas Word Maze

Letter maze · 6 × 8 · Easy

Spell ELF over and over from START to FINISH. Move up, down, left or right, and never use a square twice.

ELFDSROIEELFHALFTEOMAYFLIRRLENRVRFEASMAILUAIDTFPSTARTFINISH

Created for free at puzzleandprint.com

Christmas Word Maze, Answer Key

Letter maze · 6 × 8 · Easy

Spell ELF over and over from START to FINISH. Move up, down, left or right, and never use a square twice.

ELFDSROIEELFHALFTEOMAYFLIRRLENRVRFEASMAILUAIDTFPSTARTFINISH

Created for free at puzzleandprint.com

Or take one that is already made

Four mazes, each a two-page PDF: the maze, then the answer key with the path drawn in, on its own page.

Christmas word maze printable, little ones: ELF, 6 by 8 grid, easyChristmas word maze, little onesELF · 6 × 8 · EasyDownload PDF ↓Christmas word maze printable, everyday: SNOWMAN, 8 by 10 grid, mediumChristmas word maze, everydaySNOWMAN · 8 × 10 · MediumDownload PDF ↓Christmas word maze printable, jingle bells: 10 by 12 grid, mediumChristmas word maze, jingle bellsJINGLE BELLS · 10 × 12 · MediumDownload PDF ↓Christmas word maze printable, challenge: MERRY CHRISTMAS, 12 by 15 grid, hardChristmas word maze, challengeMERRY CHRISTMAS · 12 × 15 · HardDownload PDF ↓

Every sheet here is free to print as often as you like. If one saved you time, the tip jar is on Ko-fi.

These four mazes each hide a Christmas word or greeting as the single route from START to FINISH. Every square holds a letter; the route steps up, down, left or right from one letter of the word to the next and never uses a square twice. Find the first letter, look around it for the second, and the route unrolls from there.

Little ones spells ELF six times on a 6 by 8 grid, using none of the letters E, L or F anywhere else, which makes it a gentle first go. Everyday spells SNOWMAN five times on 8 by 10. Jingle bells spells JINGLE BELLS four times on 10 by 12, and the doubled L in BELLS means the route takes two L squares in a row. Challenge spells MERRY CHRISTMAS five times on 12 by 15 with every decoy drawn from the letters of the greeting.

Each puzzle sheet carries a Christmas border, a different design on each of the four, and each answer key prints plain with the route shaded in gray. The maker above opens on the Little ones settings, so a new ELF maze is one press away, and a class name or a family greeting can be typed in instead and printed as a stocking filler page.

Double letters in JINGLE BELLS and MERRY CHRISTMAS

A doubled letter is the one place a letter maze asks for two steps onto the same letter, and both of the longer Christmas sheets have one: the LL in BELLS and the RR in MERRY. The route takes two touching squares of the same letter in a row, which is easy to miss for a child expecting every step to change letter, and is a natural moment to talk about how the word is spelled.

The route never uses a square twice, so a child cannot step from the first R back onto itself; they have to find a second R beside the first. On the answer key the band runs straight through both.

How hard each Christmas word maze is

Little ones has no squares beside its ELF route offering the next letter, so the path never forks. Everyday has 6 such squares and three false trails along its SNOWMAN route, Jingle bells has 4, and Challenge has 14 beside a 70 square route, with ten false trails and every other square a letter of MERRY CHRISTMAS.

The step from Everyday to Challenge is a big one, so a child who breezed through SNOWMAN might try Jingle bells next. The maker can also make an easy maze from any of these words, with no stray letters from the word anywhere off the route.

Common questions

Why does the Christmas challenge sheet look so busy?

Because it is set at hard, where every square off the route is a letter of MERRY CHRISTMAS: all 110 of them. The route is 70 squares long and spells the greeting five times, and ten false trails start the greeting before stopping.

Can I print a Christmas word maze without the border?

Yes. The ready-made sheets wear a Christmas border on the puzzle page, and the maker above opens with one too; choose Plain under Border before printing to save ink. The answer key always prints without a border.

More questions about the Word Maze Maker