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20 Christmas Math Riddles for Grades 1-8

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?

1. Try out the riddles from these Christmas math worksheets and see how your child responds.
2. Ask them to pass the Brighterly test, so that they can estimate their current knowledge level.
3. 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:

1. Santa’s gifts
2. Reindeers
3. Santa’s elves
4. Candy canes
5. Christmas tree
6. Stockings
7. Christmas pie
8. 7 days
9. Gingerbread house
10. Christmas cookies
11. Christmas ornaments
12. Hot cocoa
13. Spending spree
14. Buddy and Hermey
15. How many boxes? 
16. Santa’s reindeer
17. Tree counting
18. Holiday card exchange
19. Snow toss
20. 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:

1. Santa’s sleigh ride
2. Wrapping paper challenge
3. Snowman nose counting
4. String of lights
5. Candy cane delivery
6. Reindeer rides
7. Stocking stuffer surprise
8. Gingerbread men
9. Holiday treats
10. 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:

1. Sleight ride
2. Elf’s shoe problem
3. Christmas tree lights
4. Santa’s sleigh speed
5. Jolly snowball toss

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:

• Cookies math
• Gift box puzzle
• Santa’s bag weight
• Holiday movie marathon
• Reindeer gifts

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.