Looking for clues for today's Connections answers? The Connections answers on December 25 for puzzle #563 is slightly easier than yesterday's puzzle, with the Connections Companion rating this puzzle's difficulty at 2.5 out of 5.
Every day, we update this article with Connections hints and tips to help you find all 4 of today's answers so you can keep your Connections streak going. And if the clues aren't enough, you'll find all four answers below, with the category titles and the correlating words.
Plus, we're including a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #562, in case you're reading this in a different time zone.
Spoilers lie ahead for Connections #563. Only read on if you want to know today's Connections answers.
Alternatively, visit our how to play NYT Connections guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.
Today's Connections answer — hints to help you solve it
Unlike our guide to today's Wordle answer, where we recommend the best Wordle start words as your strategy, solving Connections relies on identifying connecting categories among 16 words. Each category's difficulty level is represented by a color; yellow is the easiest grouping, and purple is the most challenging. Once you've made 4 mistakes in your guesses, the answers will be revealed, so hints can be helpful.
Today's Connections words are: Queen, Star, Cupid, Strong, Rudolph, Sadgatarius, Nanny, Comet, Vixen, Moon, Robin Hood, Shannon, Hawkeye, Fey, Jenny, Planet
If you need hints to solve the groupings, then here are the themes of each, based on the order of difficulty:
- 🟨 Yellow: CELESTIAL OBJECTS
- 🟩 Green: ARCHERS
- 🟦 Blue: FEMALE ANIMALS
- 🟪 Purple: “S.N.L.” CAST MEMBERS
These hints should get you at least some of the way towards finding today's Connections answers. If not, then you can read on for bigger clues; or, if you just want to know the answer, then scroll down further.
Here's a larger hint: In outer space, things fly straight as an arrow. In the animal kingdom, things aren't as funny as a sketch comedy show.
Today's Connections answers
So, what are today's Connections answers for game #563?
Drumroll, please...
- 🟨 CELESTIAL OBJECTS: COMET, MOON, PLANET, STAR
- 🟩 ARCHERS: CUPID, HAWKEYE, ROBIN HOODS, SAGITTARIUS
- 🟦 FEMALE ANIMALS: JENNY, NANNY, QUEEN, VIXEN
- 🟪 “S.N.L.” CAST MEMBERS: FEY, RUDOLPH, SHANNON, STRONG
Today's clues had a fun bait and switch, leading you to think it's Santa's reindeer. I quickly realized it was actually celestial objects for the first category and was on my way.
I immediately saw the connection to bow and arrow-toting characters and locked in the green category.
After that, it was a little tougher, but I got lucky putting together female things and through trial and error, got the female animals with only one mistake left. From there, I had four left, and I have to admit, I would have never gotten the last one without getting everything else first.
Yesterday's Connections answers
- 🟨 "Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!": Bears, lions, Oh my, Tigers
- 🟩 Beloved, as friends: Close, dear, intimate, tight
- 🟦 Words that sound like plural letters: Bees, ease, Jays, use
- 🟪 When tripled, hit song titles: Bills, bye, gimme, please
Reading this in a later time zone? Here are the Connections answers for game #562, which had a difficulty rating of 3.5 out of 5, according to the Connections Companion.
Yesterday's clues started with an absurdly easy reference to The Wizard of Oz. Most people will figure this out quickly before moving to other categories.
After I shuffled a few times, I noticed close, tight and intimate were all about being close to another person. Dear was the only remaining that had anything to do with physical closeness, so I went with that and was right.
After that, I failed a few times to connect, well, anything together, and I ultimately ended our streak, failing the puzzle.
