Crack Today’s Connections: The Smartest Hints and Clues for December 26

Stuck on today’s New York Times Connections? Crack the latest 16-word brainteaser—four neat groups, one sneaky theme—with fast tips, hints, and clues for December 26.

New day, new Connections grid. If you are trying to keep your streak alive during the post-holiday haze, here is the gentle nudge (and the full solve) for Friday, December 26, 2025.

Today's 16 words

Movie Exec, Cringe, Foreigner, Widow, Valley Girl, Buddy, Journey, Panther, Surfer, Screwball, America, Forest, Chicago, Tech Bro, Friday, Stoner

Quick tips before you tap

Start with yellow; it is almost always the easy warm-up and helps lock the grid into place. Also hit shuffle. A new order can make those patterns pop. And heads up: today's music category has some tempting decoys that look right but aren't.

Color-by-color nudges

Yellow is all West Coast archetypes you've seen a thousand times on screen. Green is comedy subgenres, the labels that get slapped on movie one-sheets. Blue is straight-up classic '70s rock bands. Purple isn't a vibe so much as a fill-in-the-blank: words that follow a color — specifically, Black ____.

Final answers (spoilers below)

• Yellow — California character types: Movie Exec, Surfer, Tech Bro, Valley Girl
• Green — Comedy subgenres: Buddy, Cringe, Screwball, Stoner
• Blue — '70s rock bands: America, Chicago, Foreigner, Journey
• Purple — Black ____: Forest, Friday, Panther, Widow

If you want to play along (or double-check me), Connections is free on the New York Times site and in the NYT Games app.