12-25 Christmas Number Challenge

Put your math skills to the test with this Christmas number challenge involving the digits in 12-25. Can you use the digits 1, 2, 2, and 5 to create expressions equivalent to each number between 1 and 25?

I was inspired by the great success of the 3-1-4 Pi Day Number Challenge, and I wanted to create a number puzzle with a Christmas theme.

I realize that Christmas-themed puzzles are not appropriate in every school setting. My school goes all out with celebrating Christmas. We have had 7+ days of Christmas themed dress-ups, a school wide Christmas movie themed door decorating contest, and a daily Christmas trivia contest over the intercom. If you are looking for non-Christmas themed puzzles, I’ve got hundreds of other free printable math puzzles to choose from.

Christmas Number Challenge Instructions

Use the digits 1, 2, 2, and 5 exactly one time each along with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, parentheses, and exponents to create mathematical expressions equivalent to the numbers between 1 and 25.

Exponents can only be used if they are one of the digits 1, 2, 2, or 5. For example, I could do 5^2 – 2 – 1 to make 22. The exponent of 2 counts as the use of the digit 2 in my expression.

Additionally, concatenation of digits is allowed. 2 and 5 can be combined to form either 25 of 52.

Want to allow your students to use other mathematical symbols such as decimal points, factorials, square roots, etc? That’s totally fine. But all of the numbers from 1 to 25 can be found without using any of these symbols.

Update 12-18-23: I received a message from a blog reader letting me know that the entire puzzle can be solved without using any concatenation. So if you are looking for an added challenge, try to solve the puzzle without concatenating any digits. Special thanks to Jamie Spencer for this suggestion!

Using this Puzzle in the Classroom

I’m a bit late getting this puzzle put together this year. I actually only see my students for two more days before Christmas Break, and we will be taking semester tests both of those days.

This year, I plan to have my students work on this Christmas number challenge after they finish with their semester tests. Next year, I will likely put it up on my dry erase board as one of my December Puzzles of the Week.