Christmas Murder Mystery Dinner: A Crime Under the Tree

• You're at the table for hours anyway – the game simply runs alongside the meal.
• Every generation can join in, including the guests who usually stay quiet.
• It gives everyone something new to talk about instead of last year's stories.
• The game arrives as a PDF, so it works even if you decide on 23 December.

Christmas Day is often full already with presents, church and phone calls to relatives. If you want to fit the game in, open the presents before dinner and start the first round with the starter.

Christmas Eve or Boxing Day tend to be more relaxed: nobody has an early start the next morning, and the evening can happily run to three hours. Planning a party for 31 December? See murder mystery for New Year's Eve.

1. Two to three weeks before: choose a game and send the invitations, ideally with each guest's role and the dress code.
2. A week before: hand out the roles so everyone can plan a costume detail.
3. On the day: print the booklets, lay the table, set out the evidence.
4. During dinner: one round of play per course – the host sets the pace.
5. With dessert: everyone names their suspect, then comes the solution.

Choose dishes you can prepare ahead, so the cook doesn't miss half a round in the kitchen. Anything that roasts in the oven or is served at the table works well.

• Starter: smoked salmon blinis or a winter soup – both can be made in advance.
• Main: roast turkey or beef with all the trimmings, or a cheese fondue for a more sociable table.
• Dessert: Christmas pudding or mince pies, served just before the reveal.

• Light candles and fairy lights and switch off the big light.
• Put the characters' names on the place cards instead of the guests' own.
• Wrap one piece of evidence and leave it under the tree until the final round.
• Serve mulled wine or punch from a carafe with a small label: “Not poisoned. Probably.”

A murder mystery makes a good present: buy the game, print the invitation and put it under the tree with a suggested date. Because the games come as PDFs, this still works on the morning of Christmas Eve.

A murder mystery also works for the team Christmas party – in the office, in a private room at a restaurant or at a colleague's home. What to plan for is on the page murder mystery for office parties.