Looking for today's Connections answer for puzzle #567 Connections for December 29, which is much easier than yesterday's puzzle and has a Connections Companion difficulty level of 2 out of 5?

We update our Connections clues and hints daily. And if the hints aren't enough, see the four answers below, along with the category name and related words.

In addition, for those of you reading this in another time zone, I have included a reflection on yesterday's puzzle, #566.

There are spoilers for Connection 567. Only those who want to know the answer to today's Connections should read on.

Or see our NYT Connections How to Play Guide for tips on how to solve the puzzle without our help.

While today's wordle solution guide recommends the best wordle starting words as a strategy, the Connections solution depends on identifying the categories that are connected from the 16 words. The difficulty of each category is represented by a color, with yellow being the easiest grouping and purple the most difficult. Hints are helpful as the answer is displayed after four wrong guesses.

Today's connecting words are: Beach, Date, Lock, Cherry, Fur, Maroon, Time, Pair, Strand, Head, Location, Brick, Duration, You, Ruby, Wisp.

If you need a hint to help you solve the groupings, here are each of the topics in order of difficulty:

These hints should at least help you find the answer to today's connection. If not, please continue reading for larger hints. Also, if you just want the answer, scroll down further.

Here's a bigger hint: Dye the town red for reservations and feel the wind in your hair under the trees.

Now, what's the answer to today's game #567, Connection?

Drum roll please.

I feel nice and relaxed today.

I was looking for other shades of Crayola since I saw maroon and ruby first. Brick and Cherry followed soon after.

Strand and wisp seemed similar to me, which led to the idea of locks, then heads and hair. I thought a little about fur too, because I didn't see the head right away.

Appointments were concerned with date, place, and time. The time period rounded it out. [beach (beech), fir (fir), pear (pear), u (yew).

Enjoy the last Saturday in 2024.

Reading this late in the day? According to Connections Companion, the difficulty level was 3.8 out of 5.

Today's puzzle seemed easy at first, and the yellow and green categories fit well. The “No Sweat” and “Easy” puzzles quickly led me to the easy one. The other, immediately mythical, caught my eye, Golden Fleece and Apples of Discord.

When it came to the “kicking proverb” and “start with a possessive pronoun,” things got more difficult. After some shuffling, I figured out the kicking proverbs section when I was lucky enough to have three of them next to each other. I put the tire in and it was the right one.

This left me with four purple ones, but I must admit that I did not make that outside connection since there were only four left.