NYT Strands Hints and Answers for December 23: 'Br-r-r-r-r!'

Each morning, a small ritual of wordplay invites players to pause and engage with language as a kind of seasonal mirror — today, the New York Times Strands puzzle for December 23, 2025, reflects winter itself, asking solvers to trace cold through a grid of letters. The puzzle's hidden spine, NOTSOHOT, carries a quiet double meaning: the language of illness folded inside the language of weather, a reminder that the words we reach for in discomfort often rhyme with the world outside. In a season of short days and long pauses, these daily puzzles offer a small, forgiving structure — no timer, no