Today’s NYT Strands tips, answers, and help for December 12 #284

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Every year I host a cookie swap, where all kinds of friends from near and far come with cookies, and everyone goes home with a box full of new cookie varieties to try. That’s your first clue for today Strands puzzle. Think cookies, especially the type of sugar cookies that you roll out and cut and shape accordingly. I didn’t make that kind this year: I made Nut Goodie Thumbprints and Sparkling Sugar Plum Cranberry cookies. Both were certainly goalkeepers. If you’re reading this, you probably don’t need to know how to play Strands, but just in case, I’ll go into more detail about the rules for Strands in this story. And now for more hints and today’s Strands answers.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT Puzzle Hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections turns 1: these are the 5 most difficult puzzles so far

Tip for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Shape and bake.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: if you give a mouse a cookie.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that match the theme of the puzzle. If you’re stuck, find all the words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints, but any words of four or more letters you come across will work:

• SMOKE, BUNK, DINE, DIET, ROOT, FACE, RAT, LAT, BELT, LEET, ANGLE, HEAR, CREEL, MANE, SLEET.

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that match the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that extends from one side of the puzzle to the other. Once you have them all (I originally thought there were always eight, but have learned the number can vary), then every letter on the board is used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• CLOCK, STAR, ANGEL, BUNNY, HEART, FLOWER, DIAMOND

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is COOKIE CUTTER. To find it, start with C, two columns from the left and three letters from the bottom, and travel clockwise in a sort of circle.