6 Holiday Mysteries for Escape Room Fans

In December, the ratio of work days to days off is right where we like it at Krakit Escape Game: about half and half. Even after trying out one, two, maybe three escape games with your friends and family this holiday season, you’ll probably still have some time to fill with some further brain-tickling mystery goodness.

To help you out, we’ve put together some of our favourite Christmas and wintry-themed mysteries: three TV specials and three films to get you through to the New Year.

Mysterious TV Christmas Specials

1. Sherlock, “The Abominable Bride”

What’s better than Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman playing Sherlock and Watson? Cumberbatch and Freeman playing the dynamic duo in Victorian England, of course. This hour-and-a-half Christmas special was released last January, so it’s about time for a rewatch.

2. Murdoch Mysteries, “A Very Murdoch Christmas”

The Canadian series Murdoch Mysteries, set in the Toronto of the 1890s, got into the Christmas special spirit with this two-hour episode from 2015. Along with a Christmas pageant (classic), “A Very Murdoch Christmas” also involves the Christmas demon Krampus (amazing!).

You can watch the whole thing online here.

3. Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries, “Murder Under the Mistletoe”

And finally, to turn your Christmas upside-down (literally) comes the Melbourne-set Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries. This Christmas spesh is also a period piece—set in the 1920s—with Miss Fisher and company trapped in a house after a heavy snowfall where a murder most foul has just taken place. Since Winter in Australia is during our summer, this special is set during July.

Mysterious Christmas Films

1.  Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Robert Downey Jr, Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, and a murder mystery set in Los Angeles during Christmastime. Win, win, win, win, win.

2.  Die Hard

Oh, Die Hard is already your favourite Christmas movie? Well, we should’ve seen that coming—but we couldn’t not include it on our list. John McClane has to escape an office tower that’s been taken over by terrorists. And oh boy, will he.

3. The Thin Man

A 1934 comedy-mystery to help make your holiday merry and bright, in which Nick and Nora Charles’s New York Christmas holiday is about to have a lot more murder than they ever expected. Plus, it’s a chance for us to see what 1930s Christmas cocktail parties looked like (hint: pretty classy).



Book your own Christmas escape in one of Krakit’s four Vancouver escape games here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Christmas Miracles: Five Daring Holiday Escapes

Now that we’re fully in holiday mode here at Krakit—with our newly opened Nightmare Before Christmas room and a general feeling of good (if spooky) cheer—we’ve been thinking of other daring Christmastime escapes.

Though we usually associate this time of year with lazily sitting around in darkened living rooms, with a cup of cider in hand, there’s more escape action at the holidays than you might think—not only in pop culture, but also in real life.

Ancienne prison Winter à Sherbrooke, Québec (Photo: Michel Gagnon CC)

1. Marv and Harry’s escape from the house in Home Alone

Let’s start the list off with a bang (and a fall and a blowtorch to the head). Young Kevin McCallister was clearly ahead of his time, making a topnotch escape room from things he just happened to have lying around the house.

Marv and Harry do manage to escape Kevin’s house of horrors, but ultimately are nabbed by the popo and placed in the clink.

2. Four Orlando prisoners bust out Christmas Day 1955

Prison escapes seem to be a much more common thing back in the day, with lots of planning on the part of successful inmates. This particular Florida crew—all imprisoned for cheque forgery—knew that their best chance of escape was Christmas day.

Why? Because the carol singing would drown out the sound of their hacksaws and drills. The glory didn’t last long, as they were nabbed a few days later.

3. The Von Trapps escape Nazi-occupied Austria

We all know the film Sound of Music as a holiday staple, but the real Von Trapp family actually did escape to America during the holiday season.

The family didn’t tramp through the Alps as the film shows, but Maria, Georg and their ten kids did use their musical act to fool the authorities. The Von Trapps told people they were going to America to perform, heading for Italy by train one day before the Austrian border closed, eventually landing in the US on December 30, 1942.

4. Red Hugh O’Donnell bests Queen Elizabeth I on Christmas Eve 1591

A much older Christmas escape comes courtesy of Red Hugh O’Donnell, or more correctly, Aodh Ruadh Ó Domhnaill. The future Irish rebellion leader found himself imprisoned in Dublin Castle, after falling into an English trap at age 15. Three years later, O’Donnell and other inmates used the distraction of Christmas Eve to escape their captors, climbing down the castle by rope and swimming the freezing cold moat.

Although he lost his friends (and a toe) to frostbite, Red Hugh lived and went on to lead the Nine Years War (1594–1603) against England and Queen Elizabeth I.

5. John McClane wins freedom for all in Die Hard

When terrorists overrun a Christmas Eve party at his estranged wife’s work, NYC cop John McClane has none of it. Hans Gruber takes all the festive cheer right out of the event by taking everyone hostage—except for John, who manages to get away and save the day in what many people call their favourite Christmas film.


Give the gift of a thrilling Krakit escape this year with our Vancouver Escape Room gift certificates, which you can pick up in person or have emailed in digital form.