There is something uniquely appropriate about jigsaw puzzles and the winter holiday season. Both invite slowness in a rushed world; both reward patient attention; and both are best shared with people you care about. The puzzle industry has recognised this affinity for decades, producing some of its most popular and visually spectacular imagery in festive and winter themes. The result is a category that has something for every taste — from traditional Christmas nostalgia to minimalist winter landscapes to irreverent holiday humour.
This guide covers the best Christmas and winter puzzles available for the 2025 holiday season, spanning multiple brands, piece counts, and aesthetic styles.
Traditional Christmas and Festive Imagery
Ravensburger: Christmas Market at Night — 1,000 Pieces
A European Christmas market in the glow of fairy lights — packed stalls, mulled wine vendors, cathedral spires in the distance. This image, available in several European city editions (Nuremberg, Strasbourg, Cologne), captures the atmospheric warmth of the Christmas market tradition. The warm amber and gold tones against dark winter backgrounds make sorting efficient and the completed image spectacular. RRP approximately £14 / €16 / $18 USD. Available globally.
Buffalo Games: Charles Wysocki Christmas Morning — 1,000 Pieces
Wysocki’s Christmas imagery — snow-covered New England villages, lantern-lit doorways, children’s tracks in fresh snow — is beloved in North American puzzle communities. The high-information-density folk art style makes for a rewarding multi-session build. RRP approximately $18–$22 USD.
Cobble Hill: Holly Jolly Christmas — 500 Pieces
A festive-themed puzzle at 500 pieces — ideal for gift-giving to moderate puzzlers or for a family evening build. Cobble Hill’s characteristic warm illustration style is perfectly suited to holiday imagery. Available across North America and online globally. RRP approximately $18–$20 USD/CAD.
Winter Landscapes: Beyond the Festive
Schmidt Spiele: Winter Wonderland — 1,000 Pieces
Schmidt’s winter landscape range features photographic and illustrative snow scenes of remarkable beauty. The contrast between snow-covered foreground and often dramatically coloured winter skies creates excellent sorting zones. The 1,000-piece Winter Forest at Dawn is a standout: bluish shadow, warm amber sunrise, and the near-black silhouettes of frost-covered trees creating four distinct colour zones. RRP approximately €14–€16.
Clementoni: Thomas Kinkade Christmas Collection — 1,000 Pieces
Thomas Kinkade’s luminous, light-filled winter cottage scenes have been the basis of some of the best-selling Christmas puzzles in the world for over a decade. Clementoni holds European rights to the Kinkade image library, and the quality of the printing — capturing Kinkade’s characteristic glow effects — is excellent. Available across Europe and online internationally. RRP approximately €14–€18.
Advent Calendar Puzzles: The Season-Long Experience
The advent calendar puzzle is one of the most distinctive product innovations in recent puzzle history and perfectly suited to the holiday season. Schmidt Spiele pioneered the format and remains the category leader: 24 numbered bags, each containing a portion of the complete puzzle, opened daily throughout December. The overall image is revealed gradually, with the completed puzzle emerging on Christmas Eve. Available in multiple themes including Christmas villages, winter forests, and illustrated story scenes.
Other brands producing advent calendar puzzles include Ravensburger, Clementoni, and Falcon de Luxe (UK). Prices for advent calendar puzzles typically run £20–£35 / €22–€38 / $28–$45 USD depending on total piece count (usually 1,000–2,000 across all 24 bags). These make extraordinary gifts — one gift that provides 24 evenings of engagement across the holiday season.
Novelty and Humour: Christmas Puzzles with a Twist
The holiday season’s spirit of fun has inspired a parallel category of Christmas puzzles that prioritise irreverence over visual elegance. Buffalo Games produces “Impossible” Christmas puzzles with deliberately confusing holiday imagery; White Mountain produces panoramic Christmas collage puzzles featuring hundreds of tiny holiday-themed illustrations. These are reliable crowd-pleasers for families who approach puzzling as entertainment rather than craft.
For year-round themed puzzle recommendations, our Best Puzzles by Theme archive covers every season and subject. And if you are looking for puzzle gift ideas for children this holiday season, our Puzzles for Kids section has recommendations for every age group.
