Welcome to Guilty Parties

Welcome to Guilty Parties, the murder mystery party newsletter from Great Murder Mystery Games.

This time, as Christmas approaches, I’m looking at Christmas murder mystery games.

(A quick note: I earn a small commission if you buy a game after clicking on the links. It doesn’t affect the price you pay, and helps support Great Murder Mystery Games.)

Christmas murder mystery party games

These are all interactive murder mysteries by Freeform Games. Each player has a detailed character with their own objectives. The murder is one plot of several – other things are going on!

The Night Before Christmas

The Night before Christmas is for 12 to 15 guests, plus one host. It is set at a glamorous 1948 American cocktail party on Christmas Eve, and one of the valets has been murdered!

Christmas Lies

Christmas Lies is for 16 to 32 guests (plus the host). Set in the modern day, Christmas Lies takes place during the Christmas-themed party for Christmas Confidential, a fabulously successful holiday movie. However, all is not well as the star, Tom Speed, has died suddenly in a car crash last night. (A caveat – I wrote this one, so am not unbiased!)

Christmas Reunion with Death

Christmas Reunion with Death is set at a high-school reunion in smallish-town America. Former students are gathering at the town's main hotel ahead of tonight's big party. But one of them, former prom queen Mikolette Lukanis, has been found murdered in the hotel swimming pool!

Christmas Reunion with Death is for 6-9 people (the host can play one of the characters).

Snow Business

Snow Business is for 10 to 12 guests, plus the host. Two families are on a skiing holiday in the French Alps - but all is not well as feuds are brewing and murder is in the air. Although Snow Business1 isn't specifically a Christmas party, it would be easy to give it a festive theme—just set it at Christmas!

Mysteries on the Net

Mysteries on the Net murder mysteries are extremely flexible (in terms of player numbers) because they feature several (typically 6-10) suspects with detailed backstories, any of whom might be the murderer.

Everyone else plays a detective and tries to solve the case. If there are enough detectives, they form into teams to solve the mystery together.

So these types of games are really flexible, and suit a group with a few thespians happy to take on the role of the suspects, while everyone else tries to solve the murder.

(The suspects can also try to solve the murder, but won’t have the opportunity to question the other suspects in as much detail.)

Anyway, Mysteries on the Net has two Christmas games, both written by Jack Pachuta.

‘Twas The Night Before Murder

Greeting card magnate Norton Pole has been murdered, his body found on Christmas morning. But who did it? ‘Twas The Night Before Murder has eight suspects.

I saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus

Set in a department store at Christmas – and Santa Claus has been murdered! (That’s the person playing Santa in the store, not the real Santa Claus who lives at the North Pole.) I Saw Mummy Killing Santa Claus has two versions, one with six suspects and the other with ten.

Click here to go to the Mysteries on the Net website and learn more about their murder mystery games. (Follow the link to Holiday Murder Mystery Parties.)

Choosing a Christmas murder mystery game

Office party

My recommendation for a Christmas office party is Christmas Lies, especially if you have a reasonable number of people attending. There are two reasons for this.

The first is that Christmas Lies will accommodate up to 37 players (as it comes with five free extra characters, written by customers, that you can add).

The second reason is that Christmas Lies ends with a movie-making game, where the players form teams to create (and act out) a trailer for their own Christmas movie.

If that doesn’t sound suitable, then I recommend The Night Before Christmas, which is for a good number of players.

If you’re not sure how many people will turn up and you want to be really flexible, then you might try I Saw Mommy Killing Santa Claus (with 10 suspects), which is set in a department store and is very flexible with numbers, as additional players are more detectives.

Friends and family

With friends and family, my first recommendation is Christmas Reunion with Death, which has the advantage that the host can also play as a character.

(This is fairly unusual in this type of game, but because there are no items or complicated special abilities that the host has to oversee, they can play a character fairly easily. Just be careful not to read too much when you print things out!)

Christmas Reunion with Death is for 6-9 players, and if you have more than that then you might want to look at one of the other games.

Murder parties for one

And if you have no one to play a murder mystery game with, you still have options.

Jack Pachuta’s 5-minute mysteries contains eleven murder mysteries that can be read in five minutes. (You can get these via the Mysteries on the Net link, above.)

“Cold case” kits are available online. I’ve yet to try these, but I’ve bought one for Advent which I will write a review of when I’ve completed it.

You are receiving this newsletter because you or someone you know subscribed you to our mailing list. This newsletter is 100% Opt In Only! If you liked this e-zine, please to pass it on to a friend. If a friend did this, and you like what you read, please subscribe by visiting Great Murder Mystery Games.

If you feel that you have received this newsletter in error and wish to be removed from our mailing list, you will find easy removal instructions at the bottom of this newsletter.

I accept no responsibility whatsoever for the content, profitability or legality of any published articles or advertisements contained within Guilty Parties.

And, although all of the articles have been selected for their content, the publishing of such articles within this newsletter does NOT constitute a recommendation of the products or services mentioned or advertised within those articles.

Be responsible! Always do your own Due Diligence before responding to any offer.