Change the word list
The default list is the twenty words most people expect: sleigh, tinsel, carol, mistletoe, pudding and so on. Editing them is the thing that makes a word search worth doing rather than generic. Put in the names of everyone at the table, the dog, the town you are in and two in-jokes, and the same puzzle becomes something people actually finish.
Words of five to nine letters sit best in a 15 by 15 grid. Anything over eleven letters forces the grid larger, which the generator will do automatically, and anything under four letters appears by accident in the filler and causes arguments.
Grid size and direction settings
Grid size runs from 10 by 10 up to 20 by 20. Twenty words in a 15 by 15 grid is a comfortable fifteen minute puzzle for an adult. The same twenty words in a 20 by 20 grid roughly doubles the search time, because there is far more filler to read past.
Backwards and diagonal placement can both be switched off. Off makes the puzzle markedly easier and is the right setting for children under about eight.
Printing for a group
Print in greyscale at 100 percent scaling. The grid uses a light rule so letters stay the dominant thing on the page, and draft mode sometimes drops that rule entirely, which makes the columns hard to track.
If you need thirty different puzzles for a class, regenerate between each download. Same words, different grid, so nobody can copy from a neighbour.
Questions
- Can I add my own words to the Christmas word search?
- Yes. The word list is fully editable before you print. Family names, place names and in-jokes all work, and the grid resizes automatically if a word is too long for the current size.
- Does the word search come with an answer key?
- Yes. The solved grid prints as a separate page with every word circled, so you can keep it aside while people are still working.
- How hard is the default puzzle?
- About fifteen minutes for an adult. Twenty words in a 15 by 15 grid with diagonal and backwards placement switched on. Turning those two off makes it much easier.
- Can I print a different grid for every child?
- Yes. Regenerate the puzzle between downloads. The word list stays the same and the layout changes, so thirty children get thirty different grids.