Printable office Christmas party game · Ages 14 and up · A4 and US Letter
Secret Santa Sabotage: an escape room for the office Christmas party.
It is Friday, four o'clock, and the Christmas party at Brindle & Hart has just started. Then every Secret Santa gift turns out to have gone to the wrong person. Six people left their desks in the hour before, and one of them swapped the tags. The party is on hold until your team names the saboteur.
11.99 EUR
Instant download · A4 and US Letter PDFs · personal use only
The game has 6 pencil puzzles in three parts, and each part opens on the office clock. There are Christmas cracker riddles, a chat message Kev typed with one hand on the wrong keys, and a pile of gifts whose tags went missing. After those come the wish lists, jumbled on label-maker tape, and a pub receipt from the Christmas lunch that leaves you to work out who sat where. Each of the first five puzzles gives the name of a place where somebody really was.
The last puzzle is the Line-up: six statements, and only five of them are true. Try each suspect as the liar. Only one choice lets the other five stand in the five places your team found, and that suspect is the saboteur. The team says the name to the host.
It is made for a race. Print one copy for each of 2 to 4 teams and start them together. The host keeps the Line-up back until a team has its five answers, and adds two minutes for every hint and five for every wrong name. The Extras have a scoreboard for the times and a certificate for the winners.
One person hosts. The two-page Host Guide covers printing and setting up, and the Lockmaster Key lists every answer on one page. Each puzzle has three hints, from a small nudge to the answer itself. The host reads them out from the Hints pages, or a team opens them on the free companion page, which also tells them whether an answer is right. In a race, teams tell the host about hints they open there and name the saboteur to the host.
The pages look like the office's own paperwork, drawn over in ballpoint pen: a memo, a chat window, gift tags and a pub receipt. They print on white paper, and nothing in the game needs cutting out.
What you download
- The game, 12 pages, for each team
- The Answer Tracker, a single page
- Hints, a page for each puzzle
- Solutions, laid out the same way
- The Lockmaster Key, every answer on one page
- The Host Guide, 2 pages
- Extras: a name card to fold and stand on each team's table, the race scoreboard and a certificate for the winners
There are two ZIP files, one for A4 paper and one for US Letter. Each team needs its own copy of the game and an Answer Tracker.
Is this the right one?
- Everyone playing is 14 or older.
- Someone is happy to host: start the race, keep the hints and the scoreboard, and check the names.
- Everyone playing reads English well. The puzzles are built on English words.
For one table of teens and adults rather than a race, try The Three Visitors, a Christmas escape room in Victorian London.
Questions before you print
How does the race work?
Split the party into 2 to 4 teams and give each one its own copy of the game. A team's time runs until it names the saboteur to the host. Every hint adds two minutes, every wrong name adds five, and the lowest total wins. The Extras have a scoreboard to keep the times on.
What age is it for?
Ages 14 and up, so it suits colleagues and older teens. The pages are short and made to be read aloud around a table.
Who runs the game?
One host for the whole party, not one per team. The host keeps the hints and the answers, hands each team the Line-up when it has five answers, and keeps the scoreboard.
What do we need?
A printer, paper, a pencil for each player and an eraser for each team. Nothing in the game needs scissors, glue or the internet.
What if a team gets stuck?
Every puzzle has three hints, and the third one gives the answer. The host reads them out from the Hints pages, or the team opens them on the free companion page. In a race, a team using the companion tells the host about each hint it opens.