| | | | | | |

Decorate the Tree Christmas Puzzle

This blog post contains Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

This Decorate the Tree Puzzle challenges you to cover a Christmas tree grid with the provided pieces so that no ornaments are touching one another, not even at a corner.

decorate the christmas tree puzzle
christmas garland with ornaments on them with text "christmas math activities" 

Looking for more Christmas activities and puzzles for your classroom? Here’s just a few examples of the other holiday activities I have created.

Puzzle Instructions

This puzzle has two parts: a puzzle board with a Christmas tree design and a set of printable pieces that are meant to be printed on green and red cardstock.

Decorate the Tree Puzzle for Christmas

Use the green pieces to cover the tree. You may flip or rotate any pieces. Don’t forget to leave space for the ornaments! Every part of the tree must be covered without overlapping any pieces.

No ornament may touch any other ornament, not even at a corner.

Puzzle Source

This puzzle is my own original creation. Another Christmas puzzle I designed and created myself was the Checkered Ornament Puzzle.

This was my very first original puzzle to author.

Printing and Prepping the Puzzle

The tree template is designed to be printed on 11 x 17 cardstock. I have also shared a letter-sized version of the puzzle below in case you cannot print on 11 x 17 paper. This is the size I printed to test the puzzle at home.

Decorate the Tree Puzzle for Christmas

In addition to the tree template, you will also need to print two sheets of puzzle pieces for the decorate the tree puzzle.

Decorate the Tree Puzzle for Christmas
Decorate the Tree Puzzle for Christmas

The first sheet has nine trominos. These should be printed on green paper to form the bulk of the Christmas tree. 

The second sheet has nine squares. These can be printed on any color. Each square represents an “ornament.” I chose to print mine on red paper to make it extra festive.

How Many Solutions are There?

I have found one solution to the decorate the tree puzzle myself, and my husband found a totally different solution today when he tested it out. I’m not sure how many solutions exist yet.

Digital Version of Decorate the Tree Puzzle

A lovely blog reader (Thanks Laura Ann!) turned this into a digital puzzle using Google Slides. The pieces are stacked on top of one another.

Decorate the Tree Digital Puzzle.

Puzzle Solutions

ANsWer key link

Puzzle solutions are available on a password-protected solution page. I do not openly post the puzzle answer keys because one of my goals as a resource creator is to craft learning experiences for students that are non-google-able. I want teachers to be able to use these puzzles in their classrooms without the solutions being found easily on the Internet.

Please email me at sarah@mathequalslove.net for the password to the answer key database featuring all of my printable puzzles and math worksheets. I frequently have students emailing me for the answer key, so please specify in your email what school you teach at and what subjects you teach. If you do not provide these details, I will not be able to send you the password.

Not a teacher? Go ahead and send me an email as well. Just let me know what you are using the puzzles for. I am continually in awe of how many people are using these puzzles with scouting groups, with senior adults battling dementia, or as fun activities in their workplace. Just give me enough details so I know you are not a student looking for answers to the puzzle that was assigned as their homework!

Pin for Later

Decorate the Tree Christmas Puzzle

Sarah Carter teaches high school math in her hometown of Coweta, Oklahoma. She currently teaches AP Precalculus, AP Calculus AB, and Statistics. She is passionate about sharing creative and hands-on teaching ideas with math teachers around the world through her blog, Math = Love.

Similar Posts

3 Comments

Comments are closed.