The office Christmas party has a maths problem. It's in a venue, so everyone has to get there. It's usually built around a bar, so anyone not drinking spends the night holding a lime and soda. It's in December, so half your team already has three other things on. And if your people are spread across the country, the ones furthest away just don't come.
What you're left with is a party where a chunk of the team is absent, tolerating it, or waiting for a socially acceptable moment to leave.
A murder mystery Christmas party fixes the maths. Everyone joins from wherever they are. There's something to actually do, so nobody's stuck making conversation. And it doesn't revolve around drinking, which means the people who don't drink get the same night as everyone else.
A case we only run from the 23rd of November
Every year, something happens that puts Christmas at risk. Every year, it falls to somebody to work out who is behind it.
We're looking for teams who'll be on standby. Three hours, up to 30 investigators, and a Christmas riding on whether they get there in time.
Booking now for events held on or after 23 November. If you need something sooner, any of our other cases run just as well as a Christmas do.
Why it works in December specifically
Christmas parties are the hardest event of the year to get right, because the whole company is invited rather than one team, and the bar for what counts as a good night is set by everyone's memory of last year.
A case works because it gives people a reason to talk to each other. Not the forced kind, where someone's organised an icebreaker and everyone dies inside, but the real kind, where the person from finance you've never spoken to turns out to be the one who spots the contradiction nobody else did. That's a better introduction than a name badge and a warm prosecco.
It also solves the awkward middle of a Christmas do. Most of them have a stretch after the food and before people relax where nothing's happening. This fills exactly that.
What actually happens
A body, a room full of evidence, and a handful of suspects with reasons to lie. Your people work the case: reading the evidence, questioning the suspects directly, arguing about who's telling the truth, and putting a name forward at the end. Then the reveal, told properly.
Nobody has to act. There are no costumes and no character cards, and nobody stands up in front of the room. The performing is handled for them while your team investigates.
Above a handful of people we split the group into teams working the case against each other, which suits a Christmas crowd. There's a winner, and people get loud about it. It's the same format we run year-round, so if you want the full detail of how a session works, that's on our murder mystery team building page.
Two ways to run it
A cold case. One of our existing files, ready to run. The evidence is already there, the suspects are already lying, and your team picks it up from the archive.
A case written for your team. We build it from scratch around your world. The victim, the suspects, the motives, all new, and all of it set somewhere your team will find uncomfortably familiar.
Run it as the party, or as the bit before the party
Plenty of teams use it as the whole event, especially where the company is remote or spread out.
Others run it earlier in the evening and go out afterwards, which works well: everyone gets the main event regardless of whether they can stay out, and the people who do go on to the pub have something to argue about all night. If your team is in one place, that combination tends to land better than either half on its own. We've written up a few more Christmas party ideas that don't revolve around drinking if you're weighing up options.
Book earlier than you think
December is the one month where lead time genuinely matters. Everybody wants the same three weeks, our diary fills from one end, and if your group needs more than one session we're looking for several slots rather than one.
As a rough guide, enquire by October for a December date, and earlier if you're over 30 people and need more than one session. We can sometimes do better than that, but not reliably. If you're planning the wider calendar, we've set out how far ahead to book team building across the year.
Pricing
Every session is up to 30 people, up to 3 hours, fully facilitated.
- A cold case: £700 for the first session, then £550 for each additional one.
- A case written for your team: £1,700 for the first session, then £550 for each additional one.
- Live actors playing the suspects on camera are available on request, from £1,500.
Everything's included: the investigation platform, the full digital evidence pack, and a dedicated facilitator. We don't charge VAT. We invoice from Estonia, so UK business customers account for it themselves under the reverse charge.