Birthday’s around our are usually for just a family or a couple of friends type celebration. My youngest turned 13 in July. She is a large Clue, and Escape the Night (youtube series) fan. This year, her request due to the pandemic was to have a dinner party that we all dressed up. Every mother’s first instinct is to have a Murder Mystery Party!
We stumbled upon a website https://www.mymysteryparty.com/ that offered a ton of different options for different age groups to pick. The site’s concept is to download all the necessary materials and print them yourself, or you can choose the option to have them print and assembly the materials. We purchased the fun fairy tale themed Once Upon a Murder Mystery for $43.25 and downloaded/printed the material ourselves. The kit comes with the invitations, character information, directions, plot items, victim signage, and character guidelines. The kit requires around 2 hours to prepare. I chose to give each character an envelope with their instructions for each round. One of my favorite things about the kit was the ability to cut and paste. In my household, ages 13-40 played the game; we have dyslexic child and a child with a neurological development disorder. I could take the content and paste into Microsoft Word, replace words for comprehension purposes, and change the gender of characters for gameplay. For the dyslexic child, I was able to space out the instructions and make the text larger. If you choose the download option, you will know the outcome of the plot.
A week before the party, I sent out the invitations, pregame options, information about the character they were playing, and a $25 Amazon gift card. The pregame option told them different characters that they could share information with. The pregame options ended up being a huge hit; my kids were accusing each other of different plot twists and got them excited to play. I only did the $25 Amazon for my kids since it was for a birthday. They were able to get different accessories and outfit items to personalize their characters. The kids kept their character choices a secret until the big reveal during the party.
For decorations, I kept an extremely modest budget of $30 total. I purchased a stone wall backdrop and silver decorations from Amazon. Beistle Stone Wall Backdrop Party Accessory | 4-Feet by 30-Feet | (1-Count)
A friend made a couple of small balloon columns. For the stone wall, we printed pictures off the internet to give it a castle flair. We brought out our fancy dishware for the evening
On the night of the party, everyone came dressed to play! I started by reading the rules of the game (provided in the kit) and giving everyone their first envelope and name tag. Appetizers were sat out of a bread and cheese dip with sweet tea in fancy glasses! The murder mystery party was a family only occasion due to the virus, so we were one guest short for gameplay. Hence the giant stuffed bear at the table. Her interactions were placed on the table in front of her each round. The guests went over and checked them out each round to get new information. Round one was 15 minutes. Each round consisted of telling each player what they should talk about, who to talk to, what information they were trying to find out, and what clues they should conceal.
Time for Round Two Pre-Murder envelopes. This round lasted 15 minutes as well. While mingling with each other, I put our oven steaks in the oven and baked potatoes in the Instant Pot. I prepared a salad before the event. One important thing is that if the host is playing a role, allow for food items that don’t keep you in the kitchen the whole time. You will want to get your information out and hear the information shared. While dinner was cooking, the infamous murder occurred! I am not sharing who or how to save the surprise for those wanting to purchase this kit. I now handed out Round Two Post-Murder envelopes. Our “victim” was still allowed to play the game. This subsequent round took another 15 minutes of gameplay. At this time, all the guests filled up their plates with the birthday dinner. While eating, each guest received a forensic analysis report, an investigation sheet, and a pen. We used this time to read the information, think about the clues, and discuss what they learned.
After dinner, every guest present who they thought the murderer was and why. Once all the accusations were presented, guests received their final round three envelopes. This round, the guest read their envelope contents one at a time in a specified order to learn who the actual murderer was. In our case, the murderer didn’t even know it was them! After that, it was cake time!
What a super awesome family memory that we were able to create! Hosting a Murder Mystery party is doable with kids. I would love to hear if you have ever hosted a Murder Mystery Party or if you have any questions. Have a great day! Below are a couple of the accessories my girls bought from Amazon if you are looking for ideas and dresses that they used that we have purchased for them in the past!