Do you have traditions that you associate with the holidays? For some folks, that tradition involves seasonal baked goods with flavors and aromas that create a special aura. For others, it’s a beverage, perhaps a glass of eggnog or a mug of hot chocolate. In my family, there’s the annual Christmas jigsaw puzzle.
From my perspective, there are a couple great things about associating jigsaw puzzles with the holidays. For one, it gives me an automatic gift idea for my sister Kathy, the gift-giving equivalent of the free spot on a bingo card. More importantly, a jigsaw puzzle fits my definition of an ideal way to spend a winter day (or three) during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. A puzzle provides a low-key diversion with family members who may have run through their best conversational gambits by that point and are pleased to have an open-ended companionable project to putter at together. Chitchat isn’t forbidden, but it’s not required either. There’s also no need to round up a set number of players and coordinate getting them around the table for a board game or hand of cards. People can come and go as suits their taste, time, and attention span.
This year my gift to Kathy was a 1,000-piece jigsaw with a composite image of the names of dozens of U.S. National Parks, along with images representing the parks’ iconic scenery. The first step in our family’s jigsaw approach is to lay out all the pieces, right-side up, to corral all the border pieces. Fortunately, the puzzle board Kathy received a couple years ago was the perfect size for this puzzle. If you haven’t used one, a puzzle board allows you to plunk a puzzle onto the dining room or kitchen table under good overhead light and then move it safely out of the way if you want to engage in any other activities such as, say, eating a meal at the table. Plus the tray has removable auxiliary drawers that let puzzlers further organize loose pieces, though 1,000 pieces required enlisting some clean cookie sheets for the cause.
I’ll confess, the organizing curator side of me likes to sort puzzle pieces by color to spare myself looking at every single loose piece as I quest for the one particular piece that I’m envisioning snapping into place. And I’m also moderately obsessive about finding “just one more piece” to complete a section before I’ll go to bed or cede the table to other hungry family members who’re ready to sit down for a meal. For me, assembling a jigsaw is a way to spend time shoulder-to-shoulder with parts of the family who are happily dedicated to the common cause.
Beyond my personal affection for puzzles, the professional side of me holds jigsaw puzzles near to my heart as well. My immersion in all things jigsaw truly began back in 2017 when Nic Ricketts, The Strong’s curator responsible for puzzles, and I traveled to Lewiston, Maine to pack up and transport almost 7,000 puzzles collected by Anne D. Williams, the nation’s consummate expert on jigsaws and their history. Since then, Anne and other puzzle specialists have generously shared their knowledge and their puzzles with the museum. As of today, The Strong’s puzzle holdings have grown to nearly 9,000 examples, from unique and visually stunning hand-cut jigsaw puzzles made of wood or metal as well as the simple and inexpensive die-cut cardboard frame puzzles that initiate toddlers into the pastime.
So many puzzles! So little table space for me to assemble them! But I know my limits. When I was shopping for Kathy’s puzzle this year I spotted a couple attractive designs—only to realize that they were printed with related images on both sides of the pieces to assemble into two different images. An interesting challenge, you say? Nah! I know one of those would have been a step (or three) over the boundary for me and I pulled back from the brink just in time to seize on a more conventional puzzle I figured we’d find satisfying while not feeling impossible by our standards. Whatever style of puzzle suits you; may jigsaws bring you many happy hours. Little wonder that they were a 2002 inductee to the National Toy Hall of Fame.