20 Christmas Math Riddles for Grades 1-8
reviewed by Jo-ann Caballes
Updated on November 18, 2024
As the festive Christmas vibe fills the air, there’s no better way to stimulate kids towards learning than through cheery brain teaser activities. They are fun and adorable, just what’s needed.
Without further ado — these are 20 Christmas math riddles to try out!
Christmas math riddles from the Brighterly math program
It’s well-known that learning information through something kids respond to gives the best results. Brighterly math tutoring platform actively adopts the approach. As the vibrant Christmas decorations fill the streets, fun, holiday-related tasks become integral to lessons on this platform.
However, Brighterly goes a step further and provides handy Christmas math riddle worksheets to spice up your math training at home. Take a glimpse into what you can get absolutely charge-free.
Excited? Hope you are! Because you can turn this fun, responsive learning into your child’s routine. How to?
- Try out the riddles from these Christmas math worksheets and see how your child responds.
- Ask them to pass the Brighterly test, so that they can estimate their current knowledge level.
- Get matched with an experienced Brighterly math tutor who perfectly suits your kid’s style and needs.
The result? Better grades, improved math knowledge, and, most importantly, an in-depth understanding (instead of blind memorization).
20 best Christmas math riddles and puzzles for kids
The 20 best Christmas math problems and puzzles for kids are as follows:
- Santa’s gifts
- Reindeers
- Santa’s elves
- Candy canes
- Christmas tree
- Stockings
- Christmas pie
- 7 days
- Gingerbread house
- Christmas cookies
- Christmas ornaments
- Hot cocoa
- Spending spree
- Buddy and Hermey
- How many boxes?
- Santa’s reindeer
- Tree counting
- Holiday card exchange
- Snow toss
- Gift wrapping dilemma
Santa’s gifts
You have 4 gifts, and Santa gives you another 2. How much do you have now?
Answer: 6
Reindeers
Santa had had 6 reindeer, but he found another one. How many reindeer does he now have?
Answer: 7
Santa’s elves
Each elf makes 3 toys per day. Santa has 10 elves. How many toys will they make today?
Answer: 30
Candy canes
In this Christmas math riddle, imagine you bought 12 candy canes but broke 3 of them. How many do you have now?
Answer: 9
Christmas tree
Your Christmas tree has 20 lights, but half of them are broken. How many lights does it now have?
Answer: 10
Stockings
Santa put 2 gifts in each of your 5 stockings. How many gifts will you get?
Answer: 10
Christmas pie
A pie has 8 slices; you decided to eat 3 of them. How many slices are left?
Answer: 5
7 days
Holiday math riddles like this one state that the holiday has 7 days. Suppose you get 2 presents each day. What’s the total number you will get?
Answer: 14
Gingerbread house
Gingerhouse has 4 candies on each side. How many candies are there if it has 6 sides in total?
Answer: 24
Christmas cookies
You own 10 cookies, but you decided to give 4 of them to your friend. How many cookies are left?
Answer: 6
Christmas ornaments
You have a box of ornaments. How many of each ornament do you have if:
- All of them are blue, but six;
- All of them are red, but six;
- All of them are green, but six.
Answer: 3 of each color
Hot cocoa
Imagine buying a cup of hot cocoa and a cookie for $1.8 for this Christmas math puzzle. The cocoa cost $1.2. What’s the price of the cookie?
Answer: $0.6
Spending spree
Nick spent twice as much as Alex on presents for the holidays. But Sam spends two times less than Alex. The three spent $280 in total. How much did each of them pay?
Answer: Sam — $28, Alex — $84, Nick — $168.
Buddy and Hermey
Buddy and Hermey are the two guys born on Christmas Eve. When Buddy turned 100 years old, Hermey was 97 years old. What was Hermey’s age when Buddy celebrated his 8th birthday?
Answer: 5
How many boxes?
This Christmas, you’ve received 7 boxes with presents from your mum and twice as many from your dad. How many boxes do you have in total?
Answer: 21
Santa’s reindeer
Santa has 9 reindeer, each carrying 3 bags of presents. What’s the total number of Santa’s bags?
Answer: 27
Tree counting
A Christmas tree has 10 ornaments. These ornaments come in 4 different colors. How many color combinations can be on the tree?
Answer: 1,048,576
Holiday card exchange
In this Christmas math riddle, imagine you send 3 Christmas cards to each of your 6 friends. How many cards are needed in total?
Answer: 18
Snowball toss
You toss a snowball 4 meters. If you toss it 3 times, how many meters have you thrown in total?
Answer: 12
Gift wrapping dilemma
It takes 2 meters of wrapping paper to wrap one gift. How many meters do you need to buy to wrap 15 gifts?
Answer: 30
10 best Christmas math riddles for elementary and middle school students
The 10 best Christmas math brain teasers for elementary and middle school students are:
- Santa’s sleigh ride
- Wrapping paper challenge
- Snowman nose counting
- String of lights
- Candy cane delivery
- Reindeer rides
- Stocking stuffer surprise
- Gingerbread men
- Holiday treats
- Santa’s cookie snack
Christmas math riddle #1: Santa’s sleigh ride
Santa’s sleigh can carry 6 bags of toys. Each bag holds 9 toys. How many toys can Santa carry in his sleigh?
Answer: 54
Christmas math riddle #2: Wrapping paper challenge
You need two sheets of wrapping paper to wrap one present. How many sheets will you need for 8 presents?
Answer: 16
Christmas math riddle #3: Snowman nose counting
Each snowman needs 1 carrot for a nose. How many carrots do you have to buy to make 12 snowmen?
Answer: 12
Christmas math riddle #4: String of lights
There are 7 strings of Christmas lights. Each string has 20 bulbs. How many bulbs are there in total?
Answer: 140
Christmas math riddle #5: Candy cane delivery
You bought 3 packs of candy canes, each containing 15 canes. How many canes do you have altogether?
Answer: 45
Christmas math riddle #6: Reindeer rides
Santa has 10 reindeer. Each reindeer pulls a sleigh for 5 houses. How many houses will the entire reindeer team visit?
Answer: 50
Christmas math riddle #7: Stocking stuffer surprise
You fill 4 Christmas stockings with 6 chocolates each. How many chocolates do you have altogether?
Answer: 24
Christmas math riddle #8: Gingerbread men
You bake 4 gingerbread men cookies. If each cookie has 3 buttons, how many buttons are there on all the cookies?
Answer: 12
Christmas math riddle #9: Holiday treats
You make 9 batches of cookies, with 12 cookies in each. How many cookies did you bake in total?
Answer: 108
Christmas math riddle #10: Santa’s cookie snack
Santa eats 5 cookies at each house. If he visits 6 houses, how many cookies does he eat?
Answer: 30
5 Funny Christmas math riddles
The 5 Christmas brain teasers with answers to enjoy this December are:
Fun Christmas math riddle #1: Sleight ride
The speed of the sleight is 500 miles per hour. Santa delivers presents to 100 houses every 5 minutes. How many presents does he deliver per second?
Answer: about 0.33
Fun Christmas math riddle #2: Elf’s shoe problem
Each elf has 4 shoes: 2 for each foot. How many shoes do you need for 8 elves?
Answer: 32
Fun Christmas math riddle #3: Christmas tree lights
A Christmas tree has 500 lights. Each light burns 0.2 watts. How many watts will the tree use if you put 5 times as many lights?
Answer: 500
Fun Christmas math riddle #4: Santa’s sleigh speed
Santa’s sleigh’s speed is 60 miles/hour. What’s the distance he will travel in 4 hours?
Answer: 240 miles
Fun Christmas math riddle #5: Jolly snowball toss
You throw 4 snowballs at your brother. Each snowball travels 5 feet. How many feet have your snowballs traveled in total?
Answer: 20
5 Christmas math puzzles
The 5 free Christmas math puzzles to try out are:
Christmas math puzzle #1: Cookie math
How many cookies will you have if you bake 24 cookies every hour and plan to bake for 3 hours?
Answer: 72
Christmas math puzzle #2: Gift box puzzle
You have 7 gift boxes. Each gift box contains 3 small toys. How many toys are there?
Answer: 21
Christmas math puzzle #3: Santa’s bag weight
Santa’s gift bag weighs 10 pounds, and he has 5 identical bags. How many pounds do all the bags weigh together?
Answer: 50
Christmas math puzzle #4: Holiday movie marathon
You want to watch Christmas movies on a site. Each one lasts 1 hour and 30 minutes long. You watched 360 minutes in total. How many movies did you watch?
Answer: 4
Christmas math puzzle #5: Reindeer gifts
Santa presented 3 gifts to each of his reindeer. How many gifts does Santa need?
Answer: 27
Conclusion
Think about this: you and your kid, sitting near the Christmas tree and trying to solve some Christmas puzzles math. Perfect picture, isn’t it? And it’s quite productive, too!
But if you want to make your kid’s math studying as festive as that, don’t forget to test out the Brighterly math program — they know how to keep youngsters engaged.
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