Find the links between the words to win today's game of Connections.gettyLooking for Wednesdays Connections hints and answers instead? You can find them here:Hey, everyone! I hope youre making the most of this holiday week.Ive been trying to squeeze some gaming in here and there, but Im rapidly running out of time to play everything I had on my list to check out before the end of the year. Even though its still in flux, I think my best games of 2024 list is shaping up nicely, and Im looking forward to sharing that in the New Year.Before we get started, Ive started a discussion group for Connections and this column on Discord. You can chat about each game (and other topics) with me and other folks. Im always interested to find out how other people approach the game, so join us! Its fun.Its also the best way to give me any feedback about the column, especially on the rare(!) occasions that I mess something up.Todays NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, December 26, are coming right up.How To Play ConnectionsConnections is a free, popular New York Times daily word game. You get a new puzzle at midnight every day. You can play on the NYT website or Games app.MORE FOR YOUYoure presented with a grid of 16 words. Your task is to arrange them into four groups of four by figuring out the links between them. The groups could be things like items you can click, names for research study participants or words preceded by a body part.Theres only one solution for each puzzle, and youll need to be careful when it comes to words that might fit into more than one category. You can shuffle the words to perhaps help you see links between them.Each group is color coded. The yellow group is usually the easiest to figure out, blue and green fall in the middle, and the purple group is usually the most difficult one. The purple group often involves wordplay.Select four words you think go together and press Submit. If you make a guess and youre incorrect, youll lose a life. If youre close to having a correct group, you might see a message telling you that youre one word away from getting it right, but youll still need to figure out which one to swap.If you make four mistakes, its game over. Lets make sure that doesnt happen with the help of some hints, and, if youre really struggling, todays Connections answers. As with Wordle and other similar games, its easy to share results with your friends on social media and group chats.If you have an NYT All Access or Games subscription, you can access the publications Connections archive. This includes every previous game of Connections, so you can go back and play any of those that you have missed.Aside from the first 60 games or so, you should be able to find my hints for each grid via Google if you need them! Just click here and add the date of the game for which you need clues or the answers to the search query.What Are Todays Connections Hints?Scroll slowly! Just after the hints for each of todays Connections groups, Ill reveal what the groups are without immediately telling you which words go into them.Todays 16 words are...TIDYALAHANDSOMEELDERSPRUCELIKEPINEMISSHEALTHYROUGHLYARKPALMABOUTRESPECTABLEOREAROUNDAnd the hints for todays Connections groups are:Yellow group more or lessGreen group large floraBlue group plentyPurple group certain locations, for shortWhat Are Todays Connections Groups?Need some extra help?Be warned: were starting to get into spoiler territory.Todays Connections groups are...Yellow group approximatelyGreen group treesBlue group sizeable, as an amountPurple group U.S. state abbreviations, per AP Style GuideWhat Are Todays Connections Answers?Spoiler alert! Dont scroll any further down the page until youre ready to find out todays Connections answers.This is your final warning!Todays Connections answers are...Yellow group approximately (ABOUT, AROUND, LIKE, ROUGHLY)Green group trees (ELDER, PALM, PINE, SPRUCE)Blue group sizeable, as an amount (HANDSOME, HEALTHY, RESPECTABLE, TIDY)Purple group U.S. state abbreviations, per AP Style Guide (ALA, ARK, MISS, ORE)My second perfect game in a row extends my streak to four wins. Here's how I fared:Okay, okay, it wasnt actually a perfect game. I misclicked my first guess and accidentally selected ALA instead of ROUGHLY to get the yellows. The greens were very straightforward too.The blues gave me absolutely no trouble either (though I could see TIDY giving some folks pause here). Not much tomfoolery going on there. That left the purples.I was very glad that the other three groups were relatively easy as I did not get the connection here and probably would have struggled with it. But given a little time to mull it over, I think I might have cracked this code eventually.They related to ALAbama, ARKensas, MISSissippi and OREgon. AP, by the way, refers to the Associated Press, which publishes a style guide to which many U.S. publications adhere.Thats all there is to it for todays Connections clues and answers. Be sure to check my blog tomorrow for hints and the solution for Fridays game if you need them.P.S. Ive got a few song recommendations that Ive been stockpiling, so lets start jamming through them. For no good reason that I can think of, Ive had the original version of Life is a Highway by Tom Cochrane stuck in my head for a while. Its so darn catchy:Have a great day! Make sure to drink enough water! Call someone you love!If youre so inclined, please do follow my blog for more coverage of Connections and other word games and even some video game news, insights and analysis. It helps me out a lot! Also, follow me on Bluesky! Its fun there.