NYT Strands today — my hints, answers and spangram for Tuesday, December 24 (game #296)

Strands is the NYT's latest word game after the likes of , Spelling Bee and Connections – and it's great fun. It can be difficult, though, so read on for my Strands hints. Want more word-based fun? Then check out my and pages for hints and answers for those games, and Marc's page for the original viral word game.

Play any of these words to unlock the in-game hints system. Right, the answers are below, so DO NOT SCROLL ANY FURTHER IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THEM. The answers to today's Strands, game #296, are.



.. Even after completing today’s Strands it took me a while to understand what was meant by NATURE NAMES – then BROOK Shields, HOLLY Hunter, WILLOW Johnson, and RIVER Phoenix popped into my mind.

I was hard-pressed to think of anyone famous called CLEMENTINE or LAUREL, however. Both are pretty rare names in general. According to the Social Security Administration in 2023 there were 543 babies named Clementine and just 391 called Laurel.

For comparison, 15,270 girls in the US were named Olivia in 2023. How did you do today? and let me know..