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Can you solve GCHQ’s Christmas 2025 puzzle?

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Click to enlarge GCHQ's 2025 Christmas Puzzle
Click to enlarge GCHQ's 2025 Christmas Puzzle. Picture: GCHQ

By Asher McShane

If you fancy yourself as a budding sleuth, hacker or code-breaker, GCHQ has released its annual Christmas challenge and is encouraging people to try and crack the puzzle.

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Featuring designs from schoolchildren as well as spies for the first time, the Cheltenham-based cyber spy agency has set seven fiendish brainteasers to test the public.

This year, the agency asked students to design the cover of its Christmas card, posing the question: “What do you think GCHQ looks like on Christmas Day?”

Children were asked to include hidden codes, puzzles, and to use their imagination.

GCHQ’s chief puzzler, known only as Colin, said: “We’ve designed the puzzles to suit different skill sets. Some will suit analytical minds; others require creative leaps of perseverance.

"That’s entirely intentional – we want groups of classmates, families and friends working together, combining their different strengths to reveal the final festive message.”

Anne Keast-Butler, the director of GCHQ, said: “Puzzles are at the heart of GCHQ’s work to keep the country safe from hostile states, terrorists and criminals; challenging our teams to think creatively and analytically every day.”

Have a go at the puzzle by clicking on the images below or visit this link

Click to enlarge this year's GCHQ's 2025 Christmas Puzzle
Click to enlarge GCHQ's 2025 Christmas Puzzle. Picture: GCHQ
Click to enlarge this year's GCHQ's 2025 Christmas Puzzle
Click to enlarge GCHQ's 2025 Christmas Puzzle. Picture: GCHQ
Click to enlarge GCHQ's 2025 Christmas Puzzle
Click to enlarge GCHQ's 2025 Christmas Puzzle. Picture: GCHQ