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ForbesNYT “Strands” today: Clues, Spangram and answers for Monday, December 23rdFrom Erik Cain

Merry Christmas Eve, Beachistas! I hope you all have happy holidays. Like all of you, I’m caught up in all the craziness of this season, so I’ll keep this introduction brief. Before our festive fun, we have one more problem to solve. Let’s solve it!

Strands is the latest game in the New York Times puzzle game series. It’s a fun twist on classic word search games. Each day we are given a new topic and then have to reveal all the words on the grid that fit that topic, including a spangram that spans two sides of the board. One of those words is this Spangram This goes from one side of the grid to the other and reveals even more about the topic of the day.

Spoilers ahead.

Today’s Beach Tips

Today’s topic: What the hell…?

Clue #1: The great outdoors.

Note #2: Baby name ideas.

To help you uncover all the words, here are the first two letters of each word, including the spangram.

Remember, spoilers ahead!

What are today’s Strands answers?

Today’s Spangram is: NATURAL NAMES

Here is the full list of words:

• CLEMENTINE
• FLOW
• LAUREL
• BACH
• PASTURE
• HOLLY

Here is the finished Strands grid:

Today’s Strands breakdown

This was a bit of a tricky Strands grid, simply because all of the words are nature-related words, but “nature-related” is pretty broad. How is a CLEMENTINE exactly like a BROOK? Sure, they both have nature themes, but what’s the connection? Well, it happens that these are all NATURE NAMES. You could name your daughter HOLLY or LAUREL or your son RIVER or your little Nelwyn WILLOW who is destined to do great things, protect the Princess Alora Danan and defeat the Demon Queen Bavmorda. But I digress.

How did your beaches go today? let me know Twitter and Facebook.

Be sure to stop by my blog for my daily Wordle guides, as well as all my other writing on TV shows, streaming guides, movie reviews, video game coverage, and more. Thank you for your visit!