Escape room advent calendar · Ages 12 and up · A4, US Letter or paperback
After Hours at Halloway's: an escape room advent calendar.
It is December 1936 and Edwin Halloway is dead. The glass star that topped the Christmas tree in his department store has vanished, and his will hands the whole store to the person who returns it by midnight on Christmas Eve. You have just started as the night clerk. Each evening, once the store has closed, you open the next door of his Advent Cabinet.
9.99 EUR for the printable cards
Cards: instant download, A4 and US Letter PDFs, personal use only · Paperback: sold and shipped by Amazon
The 24 nights hold 25 puzzles, since the last one has two. Each door sends you somewhere in the closed store: past the perfume counters, along the toy railway, into the tailoring room, up to the roof garden. And somebody else is in the building after dark, looking too.
Solve a night's puzzle and you get a word, which goes on that evening's door on the Advent Cabinet board. The store has 4 floors. On the last night of each floor its words combine, and on Christmas Eve the words from all 4 floors unlock the sealed ending.
The kind of puzzle changes from night to night. Some nights bring a cipher, others a logic grid, a word search, a railway map to follow or a page from a typewriter with a slipped key. All it takes is a pencil: whatever else a puzzle needs is printed on its card or is a word you found earlier.
Skipped an evening? Nothing is lost, because the next night's story starts by recalling what the previous door gave. If a puzzle has you stuck, the hint sheets offer two hints per night ahead of the full answer. The free companion page hands out those hints one by one and checks the word you give it.
What you get
The printable cards, from Etsy:
- The calendar itself, 35 landscape sheets: the rules, the cast, a floor plan of the store, one card per night, a sheet for recording your words, the sealed ending, then the hints and solutions
- 24 tags to cut out, one for each day
- The Advent Cabinet board, one door per night
- A gift card that folds in four, with the cover painting on the front, for giving the calendar as a present
Print single-sided. Fold each night's sheet in half, printed side in, and it opens like a small door: story on the left page, puzzle on the right. The sheets are mostly black with small touches of green and gold, so they use little ink and work on a black-and-white printer too. You get one ZIP for A4 and one for US Letter.
The paperback, from Amazon, is the same 24 nights in a 81-page book. Each night is a two-page spread you write in, and the hints and solutions are at the back.
Is this the right one?
- You want a puzzle to open every evening in December, not one long game night.
- Everyone playing is 12 or older and reads English well, because every answer is an English word.
- You like a story that carries on from one night to the next.
For one evening of Christmas puzzles instead, try The Three Visitors, an escape room in Victorian London on Christmas Eve.
Questions before you buy
What age is it for?
Ages 12 and up. Every answer is an English word, so it works best for teens and adults who read English comfortably. A family can play it together, one card each evening.
What if we miss a night?
Open the card you missed the following evening. Each night's story begins by recalling what the previous door gave, so it is easy to catch up.
What if we get stuck?
There are two hints per night on the hint and solution sheets, then the full answer, so store those sheets apart from the cards. Or use the free companion page: it shows one hint at a time and tells you whether your word is right.
Should I buy the cards or the paperback?
The cards if you want something to open each evening: you print them at home, fold each night's sheet into a card and tie on its tag. The paperback if you would rather not print. It is a 81-page book with the same nights and puzzles, the hints and solutions at the back, and you write the answers in it.
What do I need?
A printer, paper and a pencil, plus string for the tags or 24 numbered envelopes if you would rather use those. The paperback needs only a pencil.