12 Puzzle Advent Calendars That’ll Help Keep Your Brain Sharp This Upcoming Holiday Season

With the holidays up ahead, there are weeks of shopping, baking, wrapping, and decorating to look forward to—or worry about. In the lead-up to all of the celebrations, there are many ways you can ease stress and nourish your brain health, whether that’s meditating, getting outdoors (even in the cold!), or exercising. Another way to get your mind off of holiday stress: doing puzzles. And to count down the days in festive fashion, you can order a puzzle advent calendar and tackle a holiday-themed puzzle each day.

Why puzzles? Well, turns out doing them regularly might be a good habit to take into the new year with you: A 2018 study found that regular jigsaw puzzling can benefit your cognitive health (the benefits apply primarily to puzzling for more than 30 days). “It engages multiple cognitive functions, primarily those related to visuospatial function, such as understanding spatial relationships between objects, being able to rotate objects, and visual perception, but also processing speed, problem solving and reasoning, and memory,” explains Kellyann Niotis, MD, a preventative neurologist and Flow Space Advisory Council member.

The longer and the more extensive puzzles you do, the more benefits. You’re nourishing the parts of the brain that control visuospatial function, building up cognitive resistance to common forms of dementia such as Lewy body dementia, or Parkinson’s dementia, explains Dr. Niotis. This is not to say that jigsaw puzzles can single-handedly prevent cognitive disease, but in general, the more you stimulate your brain, the better. And if you already do puzzles all the time, keep it at—but also keep your brain constantly stimulated with novelty, with activities like trying a new exercise class or reading a book on a topic that’s new to you, Dr. Niotis advises.

Now that you know puzzling’s potential brain benefits, why not gift yourself (and your brain) one of these cheerful, colorful puzzles to cozy up with on a winter night? Check out our favorite puzzle advent calendars for this festive season ahead.

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