Christmas Lies

Christmas Lies is a murder mystery game for 16 to 32 guests and one or two hosts. It is set at a modern-day Hollywood post-awards party, and characters include producers, directors and actors. Download the free introductory pdf file.

Christmas Lies is a thrilling evening of murder, blackmail and movies. Your guests will be in the middle of the action, and it will be up to them to wheel and deal to get what they want. Will they achieve their goals, keep their secrets hidden, and make the best movie in Christmas Lies?

Christmas Lies comes bundled with Halloween Lies (the same game but with a Halloween theme) and Hollywood Lies (the same game with a general movie theme) so you can play the game all-year round.

"We had so much fun playing Hollywood Lies and I am pretty sure I won mother of the year for hosting it. 🙂 I think the kids all did a fantastic job with their roles. We will definitely come back to you for another game. Thanks!"
Sandi Atherton, United States

Click here to see stories and pictures from Hollywood Lies (the regular version of Christmas Lies).

It's award night and Tom Speed's latest film, Christmas Confidential, has just swept the board and garnered four Santas – for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Sadly, Tom Speed's award for Best Actor was accepted posthumously by his friend, Hayden Vicars, as Tom was killed in a driving accident late last night.

Despite this note of sadness, celebrations are in full swing at the Christmas Confidential post-award party. Deals are being cut for future productions and everyone is having a good time enjoying the atmosphere and mingling with Hollywood's movers and shakers.

Is there anything suspicious about Tom Speed's death? Who will win next year's Santas? Find out at Christmas Lies.

Christmas Lies lasts for about four hours and is suited to an evening. It is often played over a meal – a finger buffet if possible, to allow guests to circulate and talk in private.

"I thoroughly enjoyed playing Hollywood Lies, easy to find suitable clothing, it was very easy to find appropriate themed decorations. The making movies and watching them was fun and a good laugh."
Allison Abbott, Australia

One of our more straightforward murder mystery games, suitable for beginner hosts.

No combat, no poison.

Characters are ungendered.

The free introductory pdf file contains an introduction to the game and a cast list of all the characters.

Cast of characters

• • Morgan Beech: Star of blockbuster movie Christmas Confidential. Morgan won critical plaudits for playing Kendall Nimitz, the victim's partner. This was Morgan's first major role in a movie.
  • Detective Arden Chase: One of Hollywood's finest detectives, Detective Chase is well known to the movie community.
  • Sam Cortinelli: Sam Cortinelli is one of Christmas Confidential's stunt doubles. Sam is rumored to have "family" connections.
  • Mel Cutter: Mel is the author of "Cutter's Comments", a notorious newspaper column in the Hollywood News. In the column, Mel described Christmas Confidential as "limp and tired" and accused Tom Speed of "having all the charisma of a fishbowl". Mel is a regular feature at post-award parties.
  • Joss Dawson: Joss has been in the business a long time, first as an actor and now as an agent.
  • Luca Delmonico: Luca is comes from a very wealthy family and recently appeared in The Night Before Christmas.
  • Ash d'Lessey: Christmas Confidential's director and winner of the Best Director award in this year's Santa awards.
  • Cass Dockery: Cass works for a small independent movie financier, but is looking to break into acting.
  • Lou Egan: A respected Hollywood film director. Lou was the original director for Christmas Confidential, but was replaced by Ash d'Lessey.
  • Eddie Flax: Eddie is one of Hollywood's many agents and does a lot of charity work.
  • Terry Ford: Terry has worked in over 100 movies, playing character roles. In Christmas Confidential Terry played "Hatch", a bodyguard.
  • Charlie Henderson-Plum: Charlie played "Skipper Primley," Christmas Confidential's British villain.
  • Claude Janvier: Claude is a composer who recently wrote the music for Ash d'Lessey's The Last Noel.
  • Jam Lafayette: Owner of the popular Sacre Bleu! restaurant and TV celebrity chef.
  • Ronnie Manfred: Ronnie is a character actor who often plays evil henchmen. Ronnie has had many different jobs before getting into acting.
  • RT Markovitz: Press photographer for The Big Cheese, a tabloid newspaper.
  • Max McNab: Max plays bit-parts and is struggling to get into the big time. In Christmas Confidential Max played "Cop in Elevator".
  • Evrim Meric: Bit part actor with a minor role ("Cam Nightshade") in Christmas Confidential. Evrim also works at the Sacre Bleu restaurant.
  • Jules Milton: Manager of Spangles Hotel, where the Christmas Confidential post-Santa party is being held. Six years ago, Jules was accused of a fire that burned down three sound stages.
  • Ghana Moon: Ghana is one of Hollywood's most successful screenwriters, and won a Santa for Christmas Confidential.
  • Bernie Newman: Bernie has come to Hollywood to become a movie star.
  • Nat Rankin: Nat is a character actor who recently appeared in The Night Before Christmas as a villain – as usual.
  • Hunter Sharp: Hunter is an independent film producer/director and directed last year's award-winning Under the Big Top.
  • Toy Shepherd: Toy is a comedian from the East Coast and has suffered some bad luck lately.
  • Jackie Simpson: Jackie was originally signed up to act in Christmas Confidential, but was fired before filming started after Jackie and Tom Speed had a blazing row.
  • Pip Slater: Pip is one of Hollywood's many agents and is looking to sign up more clients tonight.
  • Val Taylor: Val both acts and produces. Val was one of Christmas Confidential's co-producers.
  • Bobby Treveeno: Bobby is an entertainer of the old school and can dance, act and sing. However, Bobby's career is in decline.
  • Les Tytan: Les is a mesmerist whose clients have included Charlie Henderson-Plum and Mel Cutter.
  • CJ Vasquez: One of Christmas Confidential's co-producers and is keen to make more blockbusters.
  • Hayden Vicars: Hayden is co-producer of Christmas Confidential, and one of Tom Speed's closest friends.
  • Shelly Wells: Shelly owns TrixieCorp, a large corporation that makes fast food and frozen dinners (among other things), but is now producing a movie..

The characters are all ungendered, so they can be played by anyone.

You also need one or two hosts, to organize the party and ensure everything runs smoothly. (We recommend two hosts, particularly if this is your first Freeform Games murder mystery party.)

How Freeform Games murder mystery games work

Christmas Lies is unlike other murder mystery games. Although the game starts with a murder, each character has several goals they must try to accomplish. While they may want to solve the murder, Christmas Lies contains plenty of other plots and secrets to keep everyone busy. Christmas Lies isn't scripted, and lets the players decide how to achieve their goals and thwart their enemies.

"Overall, Hollywood Lies was an incredibly fun night and everyone had a great time. Thank you for providing such a detailed hosting package. It was very thorough and made it so much easier to host!"
A Customer, United States

On the evening of the game the guests are met by the organizer, the Master (or Mistress) of Ceremonies.

They then receive their detailed backgrounds - including dark secrets, objectives and money. The players can form alliances, blackmail each other, steal items and even try to make the best movie for next year. Along the way they may solve some of Christmas Lies's mysteries. What is the Post-Modern Freeform Movement up to? Who will get tickets to the charity ball? What really happened on the set of Snow Business? Which script will be made into a movie? And of course, how did Tom Speed die?

Finally, the game concludes and everyone finds out how they did, and what secrets everyone else was concealing.

Recommended for ages 12+

We recommend Chrsitmas Lies for those aged 12+ as it is family-friendly and contains no adult themes.

Extra characters

Sometimes you have too many guests and need more characters. So most games have free extra characters (written by us or previous hosts) included in the download when you purchase the game.

• 'Ginger' Roberts – freelance reporter in search of the Big Story. (Any)
  (by Freeform Games)
• Gwen Cortinelli – secretary and Sam Cortinelli's wife. (F)
  (by Jo Stinett)

Please note that we haven't always tested these – and they may not tie in exactly with our games.

"Thank you for a great site, fantastic games, good service and very quick reply. Keep up the good work." Ole Martin Brodwall, Norway

Cast Iron Guarantee

We offer a Cast Iron Guarantee on all our murder mystery games. If you're not completely satisfied with Christmas Lies then please let us know within 30 days and we will refund you. See our full terms and conditions, and our refund policy.

Trouble downloading? If you have trouble downloading the game files, please first check your spam folder. If you still can't find the download email, contact us with the name of the game and the email address you used to purchase it, and we'll resend it.