A Christmas Gift Guide for Parents and Grandparents Who Love Puzzles
If your mom, dad or grandparent starts the day with a word search and a cup of coffee, you already know something important about them: the best gift is not the fanciest one. It is the one that gets used — every morning, all winter long. This short guide collects the gifts puzzle lovers actually enjoy, starting with the books we make here and continuing with a few simple extras that make puzzle time even nicer.
Start with their decade
A puzzle book set in the years someone grew up in is a different kind of gift. The words, the memories and the trivia questions all belong to their youth — a word search can wander from the puzzle page into a story about the old neighbourhood, and that is half the pleasure.
Our two large-print paperbacks are built exactly that way:
- Volume 1: The 1950s — 26 word searches, 26 gentle sudokus and 52 multiple-choice trivia questions about the fifties: diners, drive-ins, early television and the first years of rock and roll. A good match for anyone who was a teenager in the 1950s. See Volume 1 on Amazon ($15.99).
- Volume 2: The 1960s — 40 word searches, 40 gentle sudokus and 80 trivia questions about the sixties: the space race, the British Invasion, classic cars and moonlight drives. A good match for anyone who came of age in the 1960s. See Volume 2 on Amazon ($15.99).
Both books use extra-large print on big 8.5 by 11 inch pages, gentle difficulty, and a full answer section at the back — so nobody is ever stuck for long. If you are not sure which decade fits, think of the music at their wedding, or the car they talk about from their first job: that is usually the one.
A free stocking extra: print a few puzzles yourself
Before you wrap anything, you can print a handful of puzzles from this site, free, and tuck them into the card. Our daily puzzles and themed word searches all print cleanly on an ordinary home printer — pick a theme they will recognise, like Diner Days, and add a handwritten note: "Your first puzzle of Christmas morning." It costs nothing and it is usually the page that ends up on the refrigerator. Our guide to printing puzzles at home explains the paper and settings that work best.
Thoughtful extras for the puzzle table
These pair well with a book and are easy to find in most stores:
- Large-print playing cards — the same idea as large-print puzzles: familiar, comfortable, and ready for a game of rummy after lunch.
- A warm reading light — a small clip-on or neck light makes evening solving much more comfortable, especially in a favourite armchair with one dim lamp.
- A lap desk or cushion tray — turns any sofa or bed into a proper puzzle table, with room for the book, a pencil and a cup of tea (kept safely to one side).
- Soft, chunky pencils with a good eraser — easy to grip, kind to large print, and much nicer than the stubby golf pencil rolling around most drawers.
- A sturdy book stand — holds the book open at a comfortable angle for anyone who puzzles at the kitchen table for an hour at a time.
The part that matters most
Whatever you choose, plan ten unhurried minutes to do the first puzzle together — over a call, or side by side at the table while something good is in the oven. In our experience the book is the gift, but that shared first page is the part they will remember in January.
Merry Christmas from all of us at Nostalgic Brain Games — and if you would like to look at both books side by side before you decide, our books page has the details.
