Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, bickering erupted, who knows what about. One by one the family went out for air and when they came back, under the tree was bare.
You have 60 minutes to figure out who stole Christmas and save the day for everyone. Can you do it?
Key Stats
| Room Name | Who Stole Christmas? |
| Venue | Lakes Escapes |
| Location | Workington, UK |
| Date | 08/11/2019 |
| Escape Time | 31:06 |
| Team Size | 2 |
| My Recommended Team Size | 2 - 5 |
Review
This is a pop-up Christmas room and is only running for a limited time.
Last year we only played a single festive escape room, and it seemed like there weren’t too many around. According to this post from Escape The Review there are over 50 games this year! We’ve got 3 booked so far – and we kicked off the festive escape room season with the fantastic Who Stole Christmas? at Lakes Escapes in Workington.
After a household argument where all the presents went missing, we had to figure out who stole Christmas and restore the festive spirit. In our escape room escapades we’ve had to find killers, stop maniacs and defuse bombs – but for two lovers of Christmas, this is one of the most critical and serious missions we’ve faced….
The game is set in a festively decorated living room. It really looks the part - you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve wandered into somebody’s house! Christmas music is playing, there’s a warm fire and lights twinkle from the tree. We really did consider having a sit down on the sofa and popping on a Christmas film. But we had work to do!
When you play a temporary room, you don’t expect a game as high quality as a standard room. What really struck us was the quality of the props and puzzles throughout this game. Nothing really felt temporary or cheaply done – they’ve done such a brilliant job of pulling together a high quality game.
Due to the fact this is a Christmas room, it’s squarely aimed at a family audience and designed not to be too difficult for teams completely new to escape rooms. We found it quite straightforward playing as 2, managing to escape without any hints. I imagine most enthusiast groups won’t struggle.
One thing that really impressed us was the quality of the puzzles in the room. We found everything to be extremely well signposted without being obvious, with all of the puzzles flowing nicely together. We were also impressed to find two types of puzzle that we’d never come across before in nearly 80 games!
We really enjoyed this room – it’s fun and incredibly festive, a perfect game for getting you in the Christmas mood. We felt it was quite a relaxing game that we could take our time to enjoy. Rating pop-up games is really hard, because you can’t easily compare a temporary room designed for a few weeks use to a game that’s going to be around for a couple of years and be visited by 1000s of players. However, based on how much fun we had, how good the puzzles were and the quality and immersion of the room, it’s impossible not to give this a top rating. A highly recommended game that every lover of Christmas will enjoy. If you hate Christmas, stay at home.
I also want to say a big thank you to our wonderful hosts who gave an enthusiastic intro to the game and an exciting behind the scenes tour talking all things escape rooms!
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| The team were Becky and Daniel. |
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| It's a rarity for us, but we also made it to the top of the leaderboard! |
Ratings
| Overall |  | A highly recommended game that every lover of Christmas will enjoy. If you hate Christmas, stay at home. |
| Difficulty |  | It’s squarely aimed at a family audience and designed not to be too difficult for teams completely new to escape rooms. Enthusiasts won’t struggle at all. |
| Fun | | We really enjoyed this room – it’s fun and incredibly festive, a perfect game for getting you in the Christmas mood. |
| Puzzles |  | Everything was well signposted, with all of the puzzles flowing nicely together. We were impressed to find two types of puzzle that we’d never come across before! |
| Immersion | | The game is set in a festively decorated living room. It really looks the part - you could be forgiven for thinking you’ve wandered into somebody’s house! |
| Surprises | | When you play a temporary room, you don’t expect a game as high quality as a standard room. What really struck us was the quality of the props and puzzles throughout this game. |