Words can bend and twist through the grid in any direction
Each day, the New York Times invites its players into a small ritual of pattern recognition and cultural memory — and on December 30, 2025, that ritual takes the form of music. The Strands puzzle asks solvers to trace the shapes of popular songs through a grid where every letter belongs, and nothing is wasted. It is a quiet reminder that even leisure has its own architecture, and that the pleasure of finding something hidden is inseparable from the patience required to look.
- Unlike a straight-line word search, Strands bends its answers in any direction, forcing solvers to think in curves rather than columns.
- Every letter in the grid must belong to an answer — there is no filler, no escape, only the pressure of total accountability.
- The spangram 'Hit Songs' cuts diagonally across the grid, the hardest prize to claim and the one that unlocks the theme's full meaning.
- Five song titles — Daisies, Abracadabra, Golden, Manchild, and Ordinary — hide in plain sight for those who know the year's charts, and remain invisible to those who don't.
- Players may choose their own difficulty, from pure intuition to a full word list, making the puzzle as demanding or as forgiving as the moment requires.
The New York Times' Strands puzzle for December 30 is built around the music of 2025, asking players to find song titles hidden inside a grid of linked letters. What sets Strands apart from a traditional word search is its freedom of movement — letters can connect in any direction, bending and winding through the grid in unexpected paths. More demanding still, every single letter must belong to one of the answers, leaving no room for chance or coincidence.
The day's theme, "2025 Top Twenty," points solvers toward recent chart-toppers, rewarding those who have kept up with what's been streaming and playing on the radio. The five words to find are Daisies, Abracadabra, Golden, Manchild, and Ordinary — all titles drawn from the year's most prominent songs.
At the center of each Strands puzzle is the spangram, a special word or phrase that captures the entire theme and spans the grid in one unbroken line. Today's spangram is "Hit Songs," running diagonally — a small but meaningful added challenge. Finding it tends to illuminate the rest of the puzzle.
For those short on time or patience, the game offers a sliding scale of assistance, from a cryptic theme clue all the way to the complete word list. Strands asks more of its players than Wordle or Connections, but it also offers more room — to move at your own pace, to engage as deeply or as lightly as the day allows.
The New York Times' Strands puzzle for December 30 centers on a music theme, asking players to hunt through a grid of linked letters for words connected to 2025's most popular songs. Unlike a traditional word search, where you scan for words in straight lines, Strands lets letters connect in any direction—up, down, sideways, or diagonally—and words can bend and twist into unexpected shapes as they wind through the grid. The catch is that every single letter must belong to an answer, and all the answers share a common thread.
Today's puzzle asks you to think about popular music. The words you're looking for all describe hit songs, and if you're stuck, the theme itself—"2025 Top Twenty"—points you toward recent chart-toppers. The game rewards players who keep up with what's been playing on the radio and streaming services, though you don't need to be a music expert to solve it.
The real prize in Strands is the spangram, a special word or phrase that captures the day's entire theme and stretches across the grid in one unbroken line. Today, that spangram is "Hit Songs," and it runs diagonally rather than horizontally or vertically, which adds a small extra layer of difficulty to the hunt.
If you're working through the grid and need a push, the five words you're looking for are Daisies, Abracadabra, Golden, Manchild, and Ordinary—all titles or key phrases from songs that have dominated the charts this year. Some of these will be easier to spot than others depending on how familiar you are with the tracks, but once you find one, the connected letters often make the next word easier to locate.
Strands takes longer than the Times' other daily games like Wordle or Connections because the puzzle deliberately hides the word list and offers only cryptic hints at first. You can choose your own difficulty level: start with the opaque theme clue and work purely from intuition, or if time is short or frustration is mounting, jump straight to the complete word list and focus on finding where each word lives in the grid. The game respects both approaches, letting you engage at whatever depth suits your day.
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So this is a word search, but not really?
Right. It looks like a word search, but the words don't have to go in straight lines. They can bend and twist through the grid in any direction.
And every letter has to be used?
Every single one. That's what makes it harder than it looks. You can't just find the words and move on—you have to make sure the whole grid is accounted for.
Why is today's puzzle about music specifically?
The Times themes change daily. Today they picked 2025's biggest songs. If you've been listening to the radio or streaming, you'll recognize some of the words right away.
What's a spangram?
It's the theme itself, condensed into one phrase that runs all the way across or down the grid. Today it's "Hit Songs" and it goes diagonally.
Does knowing the spangram help you solve the rest?
Sometimes. Once you find it, you know the letters are already placed, so you can work around them. But it's also the hardest part to spot.