A Christmas Eve murder mystery for 6 to 14 guests
Snow outside. Secrets around the Christmas table.
Every guest gets a character, a secret and lines to say, on their own phone.
Plays on phones · printable too
$59
One price for the whole table.
Get the mystery · $59Play it on phones and a tablet, or on printed paper.
Yours the moment you pay.
Add a second mystery Two evenings for $99. You save $19.
A question first? Write to support@murderbeforedessert.com.
Never played one?
1Before the party
Send each friend their character and a costume idea.
2Over dinner
Your phone hands you lines to say and questions to ask. Fresh clues land each round.
3Before dessert
Accuse your suspect in secret. Then the culprit stands up and reads the confession.
The suspects
Bring 6 to 14 friends. Everyone gets a character.
The partner
“Numbers do not lie. People do, constantly.”
What they are hidingYou change the subject beautifully. Tonight you will need to.
The wife
“Someone has to keep this family in tune.”
What they are hidingThe perfect hostess. There is one thing about this year you have told nobody.
The doctor
“I told him to rest. He poured another port.”
What they are hidingA doctor keeps confidences. One of yours is getting heavy.
The daughter
“I only ever wanted to make things.”
What they are hidingEveryone here thinks they know what you want. They are wrong.
The housekeeper
“I see everything in this house. I say very little.”
What they are hidingYou know everyone's secrets in this house. Nobody has ever wondered about yours.
The nephew
“Uncle Edmund and I had an understanding. He understood I would pay him back.”
What they are hidingYou have talked your way out of everything so far. Tonight is a bigger test.
Fourteen people with something to hide.
Prefer paper?
Booklets, evidence and a sealed ending, to print at home or at a print shop. Choose phones or paper after you buy.
Tap a page to read it.
Download these 6 sample pages (PDF)
About an hour and a half to get ready: for six guests, printing included. Black-and-white files and a print-shop file are included.
Single-sided sheets, including all packet covers:
| Guests | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sheets | 89 | 95 | 100 | 106 | 111 | 117 | 122 | 128 | 133 |
Have 4 envelopes: ROUND 1, ROUND 2, ROUND 3, the red box.
Questions
No. Every guest's phone tells them what to say and what to ask in each round, so even a shy guest always has a line ready.
Yes. The host plays one of the six and reads Inspector Garland's lines from the host page. The solution is sealed, so the host guesses along with everyone else.
Six characters carry the story and the others can be left out one by one. If one of the six cancels, another guest steps into the role, or you read that character's written statement aloud. The evening goes ahead either way.
Yes. It is written for adults and plays well with teens: the one death happens off stage, and nothing graphic is shown or described.
It is set on Christmas Eve, so it plays best from late November to New Year.
With new guests, yes. The murderer is the same each time, so not with the same group.
Any number from 6 to 14. Every guest plays a character of their own, with lines to read aloud in every round, and the price is the same for a table of 6 or of 14.
No. The whole evening plays on your guests' phones, and you run it from a tablet or your own phone. Prefer paper? The complete printable kit is included.
A phone for every guest and an internet connection at the table. Each guest opens their own link in the phone's browser. A tablet is handy for the host; a phone does the job too.
Your private host page opens at once, and we email you the link. Add your guests there and send each one their character. On the night you run the evening from that page. Keep the link; it is your key.
No. Nothing ships. It plays on your phones, and the printable kit is a download: print it at home, or send the single print file to a print shop.
No. Anyone can play any character. Half the fun is who ends up as whom.
Yes. Buy it, then forward the private host page link to the person who will host.
More evenings
Free sample
6 real pages from The Last Toast at Hollybrook Lodge, as a PDF in your inbox.
