Baby Jesus

Christmas Hard 26 words6 plays

A donkey and sheep in a stable with a shepherd watching beneath a bright star.

ANGEL GABRIEL
ANGELS
BABY JESUS
BETHLEHEM
CHRIST
CITY OF DAVID
DONKEY
FRANKINCENSE
GALILEE
GLORY TO GOD
GOODTIDINGS
HOLY SPIRIT
INNKEEPER
JOSEPH
KING HEROD
MANGER
MARY
MYRRH
NATIVITY
NAZARETH
SHEEP
SHEPHERD
STABLE
STAR
SWADDLING
WISE MEN

Print this puzzle

Bethlehem, Mary, Joseph, wise men and angels populate the Nativity scene. This puzzle gathers the sacred elements of Christ's birth from stable to star.

Baby Jesus word search printable sheet, 26 words to find — Baby Jesus word search, printable sheet

Tips for Solving Word Search Puzzles

Words in this puzzle run in all eight directions: across, down and diagonally, and some of them read backwards. Knowing the rules narrows the search before you start.

How hints work

Press and hold a word in the list beside the puzzle above, or hold Space or Enter on it from the keyboard, and a ring fills while you wait. After five seconds every cell where that word's first letter appears is outlined in the grid. Keep holding another six seconds and the outlines narrow to only the places where its second letter follows on. Let go and the outlines clear. A word found with help keeps its outline, in the grid and in the list, so you can see afterwards which ones needed a hint. Hints are available while the clock is running, not while the puzzle is paused.

Ways to find a stubborn word

Check the edges for long words. A long word needs a long straight run of cells, and the outer rows and columns are where those runs tend to begin or end. Trace the border first.
Hunt the rare letter, not the first one. A word that contains a J, Q, X, Z, K, W or V is easier to find by that letter than by its opening one: there are far fewer of them on the grid, and each one you find is a candidate to read outward from in every allowed direction.
Search the open ground. Once several words are marked, the remaining ones are hiding in the areas nothing crosses yet. Give the untouched patches your attention before re-reading rows you have already combed.
Look for doubled letters and fixed pairs. LL, OO, EE, TH and QU stand out at a glance. Find the pair, then check whether the rest of the word runs from it.
Scan one direction at a time. Run your eye along every row looking only for the word's first two letters, then down every column, then along the diagonals if the puzzle allows them. One direction per pass is faster than switching on every cell.
Read the endings. If words here can run backwards, an ending like ING, TION or ER is as good a handle as the start: spot it, then read back the other way.
Take the longest words first. They have the fewest possible positions, and marking them carves the grid into smaller regions for everything shorter.
Pause when you are stuck. Pause stops the clock. A fresh look after a minute away finds what a tired one keeps missing, and Shuffle gives you a new arrangement of the same words if you would rather start over.

What the words in this puzzle mean

ANGEL GABRIEL: The messenger who told Mary she would bear a son, in the account called the Annunciation.
ANGELS: The heavenly host who appeared to the shepherds announcing the birth.
BABY JESUS: The newborn child at the centre of the nativity story.
BETHLEHEM: The town in Judea where the birth took place, five miles south of Jerusalem.
CHRIST: From the Greek for "anointed one", the title given to Jesus rather than a second name.
CITY OF DAVID: Another name for Bethlehem, the birthplace of King David centuries earlier.
DONKEY: The animal tradition places at the manger, though the gospels never actually mention one.
FRANKINCENSE: A fragrant resin burned as incense, the second of the three gifts.
GALILEE: The northern region where Mary and Joseph lived, in the town of Nazareth.
GLORY TO GOD: The opening of the angels' song to the shepherds, sung at Christmas ever since.
GOODTIDINGS: Good tidings — the "good news of great joy" the angel brought to the shepherds.
HOLY SPIRIT: The third person of the Trinity, by whom the gospels say Mary conceived.
INNKEEPER: The figure of tradition who had no room; the gospels mention only that there was none.
JOSEPH: A carpenter of Nazareth, betrothed to Mary and the child's earthly father.
KING HEROD: The ruler of Judea who questioned the wise men and then ordered the children killed.
MANGER: A feeding trough for animals, used as the newborn's cradle.
MARY: The mother of Jesus, a young woman of Nazareth.
MYRRH: A bitter resin used in burial ointments, the third gift and the darkest in meaning.
NATIVITY: The birth itself, and the name given to the scene depicted at Christmas.
NAZARETH: The Galilean town Mary and Joseph came from and where Jesus grew up.
SHEEP: The flocks the shepherds were watching by night when the angels appeared.
SHEPHERD: One of the field workers who were told first — the lowest-status witnesses in the story.
STABLE: The shelter for animals where tradition places the birth.
STAR: The light the wise men followed west, sometimes called the Star of Bethlehem.
SWADDLING: Wrapping a newborn tightly in cloth strips, the ordinary practice of the time.
WISE MEN: The magi from the east who brought the three gifts; the gospels never say how many there were.

Baby Jesus Word Search Answer Key

Checking a finished sheet, or stuck on the last word? The Baby Jesus Word Search Answer Key marks all 26 hidden words in the grid and lists the row, column and direction each one starts from. It prints on its own sheet, so you can hand out the puzzle and keep the answers.

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