THE METRO PARKS 2025 HOLIDAY CROSSWORD IS HERE! As well as nature and general trivia, the theme of this year’s crossword adds Outer Space, to complement Metro Parks’ Wild and Wonderful Open Spaces, adding astronomy to the mix. Submit your completed Crossword by Monday January 5, 2026 to info@metroparks.net and you could win a special Metro Parks prize. Download a fillable version of the Holiday Crossword from the button below the puzzle grid and complete the crossword in Adobe Acrobat Reader. Some browsers also allow you to fill in the answers.
Alternatively, you can print the crossword and fill it in by hand, then submit it to ‘Metro Parks Holiday Crossword, 1069 W Main Street, Westerville, Ohio 43081’.
Download a fillable version of the crossword
ACROSS
1. Always a popular Holiday gift. (8)
4. Welcome to the holiday feast, but it would surprise no one if the kids refuse to eat these. (6)
7. You might melt them if you hold a flame to these wings, or maybe it’s simply a tree. (5)
8. An act of great skill or daring. (7)
9. They reflect. (7)
11. It’s a kind of a leaf on an ancient plant. (5)
13. I challenge you to a run, or maybe you should just study up on your botany. (6)
15. It’s for the chop. (3)
16. They’ll cart you off on your travels. (4)
20. Now that’s got teeth! (3)
21. This ancient Roman Festival happened around Christmas time. (10)
22. The life blood of a tree. (3)
23. Not sitting straight. (5)
25. A snowy owl is one of these in Ohio. (6)
26. Milk or sauce, it’s the GMO of choice. (3)
27. It’s a species of oak, among other things. (5)
28. It’s a pig all right! (3)
29. We live in one of these. (5, 6)
DOWN
1. Take a hike to the giants at Highbanks and see these. (9)
2. A summer highlight of the Darby Plains (7)
3. Some planets have these, and fingers too. (5)
4. Long-necked ruminants. (8)
5. We have ‘em spring and fall. (9)
6. If this trumpeter was mute, would he or she be unable to speak, or rather be one of these? (4)
10. It’s a grass and a grain and all sorts of stuff. (3)
12. In Ohio we see the flakes more often than these migrants. (4, 5)
14. The first part will help you get around, but taken together, probably very slowly. (3, 7)
17. Look for the common and black varieties of this migrant seabird in park rivers and lakes. (4)
18. One of trillions in the universe. (6)
19. In which our solar system resides. (5, 3)
21. The species name of a very common bird. (7)
22. It ain’t no dog, despite the name of its constellation and its common appellation. (6)
24. In ants and wasps it’s called a petiole and it’s ridiculously narrow, but we’ll never get one that small as long as fast food exists on every corner. (5)
26. The Latin name for our home star. (3)