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The Saint Paul Winter Carnival is home to the largest annual jigsaw puzzle competition in the country! This is your opportunity to puzzle with hundreds of other puzzle enthusiasts from around the country! The event is open to all puzzlers - competitive and casual alike. Grab your friends and family for two days of lively puzzle fun!The Union Depot has plenty of parking and is located on the light rail Green line for easy access. (link to parking map here?)
For teams visiting from out of town, the Hyatt Place Hotel is right next door and the DoubleTree is close by as well (see information on the Hotels tab for a special Winter Carnival room rate).
NEW Registration Date!
We heard you! We are grateful for all the feedback that was shared following the 2025 competition. We know how much you cherish this competition and we want to continue to make this a great experience for our wonderful puzzlers!
Some of the changes implemented for this year include: registration moved to the first Saturday in October (we know that being able to register at 10am on a weekday was difficult), an all new registration platform, more grab and go food options, expanded Casual Puzzle Area and more!
Event Format
The event format for 2026 will be the same as 2025 with three 500 Piece Team contests, a 1000 piece Team contest, a 500 piece Pairs contest, and a 500 piece Solo / Family contest. Participants are welcome to join for a single contest or all four different contests!
Our puzzle sponsor, PuzzleTwist, will again be supplying FOUR new puzzles, releasing two new puzzles each day of the competition! Three different 500 piece puzzles and a 1000 piece puzzle! Each contest time will feature a different puzzle with the exception of the Open 500 piece teams which will use the same puzzle as the Challenge division. The Solo and Family contests will be using the same puzzle concurrently.
Prizes! The top teams in each category will get great prizes including gift cards from Games by James! In addition, there will be many new opportunities for every team to win many wonderful door prizes!
Casual Puzzling and Puzzle Swap
The popular Casual Puzzling Area is back, bigger and brighter! This area is FREE to attend for all: contestants and spectators alike. A place to mingle with fellow puzzle enthusiasts while assembling more puzzles just for fun or to warm up for your contest. Leslie Mallery, organizer of the Longest Day for Alzheimer’s puzzle event, is again hosting the free casual puzzling area conducting fun puzzle games such as sprints and puzzle chess for prizes.
Puzzle swap! The Casual Puzzle area will include a huge puzzle swap! Bring your gently used COMPLETE puzzles to swap for new-to-you puzzles. We request that your puzzles include the original box and that pieces be placed in a ziplock bag to avoid missing pieces.
Thank you to Metro Transit, you can easily download a FREE pass for transportation to and from the Saint Paul Winter Carnival!
Saturday, January 24: 8am-Midnight
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2026WinterCarnivalJanuary24
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Union Depot, 214 4th Street East,Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.
