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Christmas Party With an Escape Game: How to Plan the Evening From the Toast to the Buffet
An escape game gives your Christmas party a shared experience people keep coming back to all evening. Here's how to schedule the game, set up the room and mix the teams.
A Christmas party with an escape game works best when the game gets its own block of the evening, between the welcome and dinner. Teams at their tables solve puzzles, think out loud and laugh at their own mistakes. When they sit down to eat, they have plenty to talk about. Escape Box is played right where the party takes place, so nobody has to travel anywhere. How the game works on its own is covered in a separate article about Escape Box. Here we focus on the Christmas evening: when to start, how to set up the room, how to mix the teams and how to wrap up the game so the fun keeps flowing. More ideas for the whole evening are rounded up in the article on Christmas party programs.
The Party at a Glance
You can build the whole evening around a simple timeline. The game has a fixed spot in it, but it doesn’t overshadow the food or the free time.
- Welcome and toast, so people have time to settle in.
- A short game intro, with a bit of theater rather than a list of rules.
- The game in teams, each team at its own table.
- Announcing the results and sharing a few stories from the game.
- Buffet, music and free program.
When to Schedule the Game
The best moment is right after the welcome, while people are fresh and not yet sitting over full plates. After a big dinner, puzzles get hard and attention drifts toward the bar.
The opening toast, on the other hand, helps the game. People loosen up, stop mentally sorting through their work email and are happy to join in.
Is there a leadership speech on the program? Put it before the game. After the results are announced, the room wants to celebrate, not listen.
How to Set Up the Room
Each team needs its own table and a bit of privacy. When tables stand right next to each other, teams overhear each other’s ideas and the game turns into a group guessing session.
Watch the lighting. Candlelit Christmas dimness looks beautiful, but small print is hard to read in it, so give the game tables regular lighting and leave the atmosphere to the decorations around them.
Keep the music quiet. Teammates have to hear each other across the table; otherwise people start shouting and the energy soon turns into fatigue.
Keep the bar and buffet away from the game tables. The choice of venue matters less than it seems: the game fits into the space you’ve already booked.
Putting Teams Together
Build teams across departments. An accountant, a salesperson and a developer each see the same puzzle differently, and that’s exactly what makes an escape game the most fun.
Feel free to split up friends from the same office. They spend the whole year together; the party is a chance to get to know people they otherwise only see at the coffee machine.
New colleagues join in faster in a small team than at a long shared table. The task gives them a reason to talk without having to make polite small talk.
Spread leadership across different teams. That way the boss comes across as a teammate at the table, not as a judge.
A Party, Not a Training Session
A clear framing helps: this is a party, not a training session. Nobody rates performance, nobody takes minutes, and losing an escape game makes just as good a story as winning.
The Christmas mood comes from the decorations, music and host. The game adds suspense and a shared goal, so the evening has no dead spots where people just stand around holding a glass.
Whoever runs the game should keep an eye on the pace and help a stuck team before the puzzles stop being fun.
Keep the competition light. A small prize for the winners is enough, and a funny award for the team with the most creative mistake often brings even more joy.
Results and Transition
Keep the announcement short and cheerful, then open the buffet right away. A long ceremony kills the energy the game created in the room.
Let each team tell its story: where they got stuck, who had the saving idea and what they kept overlooking the whole time. These stories then travel between tables until the end of the night.
Photos of teams solving puzzles usually do better on the company intranet than a group shot by the tree. If you have a photographer, send them around the tables during the game.
What to Prepare in Advance
The more you know before the party, the smoother the evening itself. Before you book the game, put together this information:
- An estimate of the number of guests and how many of them will actually play.
- A floor plan of the room showing the tables, bar and buffet.
- A schedule for the evening with the times of the toast, speech and dinner.
- Small prizes for the winners and for the team with the best story.
Remote Team Members
When part of the company can’t make it to the party in person, for example colleagues abroad or those working from home, a virtual escape game is a good fit. It’s played in a web browser, with the team connected via Teams, Zoom or Meet.
For a party where everyone sits in one room, Escape Box at the table is the more natural choice. The online version is for people who aren’t physically together, not a substitute for meeting in person.
An Outdoor Game Before Dinner
If you’d like to start the party outdoors, you can add a Treasure Hunt downtown in winter. Teams walk around with tablets or phones running our GPS app, look for treasures on the on-screen map and head back into the warmth straight to dinner.
December can surprise you with rain and sleet. A rain plan is part of every booking: if the weather doesn’t allow playing outside, the city Treasure Hunt is replaced by a story game in indoor mode, with questions on screen and the team together in the room.
We’ve been running Treasure Hunts since 2013, so we know how to plan a winter game so people don’t show up to dinner frozen.
FAQ
Is an escape game a good fit for a Christmas party? Yes, if it gets its own block of the evening before dinner. Teams talk, solve puzzles together at their tables and walk away with shared stories.
Where should the game go in the program? Right after the welcome and toast, while people are fresh. The leadership speech goes before the game, and the results announcement right before the buffet.
How should we split colleagues into teams? Across departments, with leadership in different teams and new colleagues alongside people they don’t know yet.
What if part of the team can’t come? For remote team members, there’s a virtual escape game played in a web browser over Teams, Zoom or Meet.
What if we want to play outdoors and it rains? A rain plan is part of every booking. A story game in indoor mode replaces the outdoor Treasure Hunt, and the program goes ahead on the original date.
It’s smart to book December dates early, since Christmas parties all get planned for the same weeks. Send us your estimated guest count and a floor plan of the room, and we’ll set up Escape Box to fit your schedule between the toast and the buffet.
Treasure Hunt Prague
Our instructors run the game with tablets, or you start it yourselves on your phones. Tell us the number of people and the date, we will get back to you the same day.
Summary
- An escape game at a Christmas party works best as its own block of the evening, scheduled right after the welcome and toast and before dinner.
- Any leadership speech should come before the game, and the results announcement should be short and lead straight into the buffet.
- Each team needs its own table with regular lighting, quiet music, and distance from the bar and buffet so teammates can hear each other.
- Teams should mix departments, split up close office friends, place new colleagues with people they don't know, and spread leadership across different teams.
- Remote colleagues can join a virtual escape game played in a web browser over Teams, Zoom or Meet, and outdoor Treasure Hunts include a rain plan with an indoor story game.
Want to walk this route with your team as a game? Write to us or call and we will set it up for your date.
