Hen do crosswords: the game that works before anyone knows each other
A hen weekend game that survives a train, a cottage kitchen and a group chat.
The problem with most hen games
Hen party games tend to assume everyone has arrived, everyone is drinking, and everyone is happy to be loud in front of people they met an hour ago. In practice a hen do is a long thin thing: a train, a wait for a taxi, an afternoon in a cottage, a table booked for eight.
A crossword fits those gaps. It can be started on the journey, abandoned for the activity and picked back up over breakfast, and the shy cousin can join in without being made to stand up.
Making it about the bride
Ask the hen party group chat for one fact each and you will have a grid's worth in a morning. First job, the ex nobody names, the terrible flat, her order at the pub, the holiday where the hire car broke — these produce clues that half the room can answer and the other half has to be told about, which is the point.
Keep it affectionate rather than scorched-earth. The bride is going to be handed this in front of her mother-in-law's sister at some stage.
How to make your own in about five minutes
Open the builder, type in twelve to twenty answers — single words work best, and names are fine — then write a short clue for each one. If a clue is not coming, the clue helper will suggest one you can edit rather than accept wholesale, which is usually the faster route.
The grid arranges itself around your words, and you can reshuffle the layout until the shape suits. Publishing gives you a link to send and a print view with the blank grid, the clue list and a separate answer sheet on A4. Nobody you send it to needs an account to solve it.
Printing it for a room full of people
Every puzzle on the site has a print view laid out for A4: an empty grid, the clues in two columns, and the answers on their own page so you can keep them back. Printing one copy per person and one answer sheet for whoever is running things is usually the right split.
If you would rather not print, the link works on any phone browser and keeps each person's progress separately, so a table can race without sharing a screen.