Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for December 27, #299

Looking for Latest Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hintsas well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Connections puzzles.

TODAY Poisons puzzle may have been written just for me. I co-wrote What Happened to Pudding Pops?a book about the lost toys, tastes and fashions of the 1970s and 1980s, so I’m very familiar with the fashion and beauty styles of that era. If you remember acid-washed jeans and still have a Benetton sweater or two, you should do the puzzle well now. But if you need some tips and answers for the Strands puzzle now, read on.

Also, I’m going to go in depth rules for Strands in this story.

If you are looking for current Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hint page.

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

The current Strands theme is: Back in style

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Leg warmers and shoulder pads.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find the hidden words that match the theme of the puzzle. If you’re stuck, look up any 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 the hints, but any four or more letter words you can find will work:

REEK, BALAS, WALA, SMUT, MILL, PREM, MUTE, MUTES, MULL, NREAK, SMIT, JUMP, JUMPS, BRIS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers tied to the theme. The object 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’ve got them all (at first I thought there were always eight but found out the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the non-spangram responses: