This Christmas engage your elementary-aged children in the hunt for the Wiseman’s gold. There will be puzzles to solve, riddles to figure out, teamwork to be used, and of course gold!
An Escape Room is an adventure game where a group solves a series of puzzles and riddles using clues, strategy, and hints. Players have a set time limit to find the item in question. If they fail to locate the missing item within the time limit, they lose. In this case, the wiseman’s gold was almost stolen by bandits and the players must work together to figure out where the gold has been hidden before time runs out.
This escape room is meant to be enjoyed by elementary-aged children. However, it could be easily adaptable for a middle school group. This escape room should take around 45 minutes to complete, but depending on your group’s age, you can tweak that time.
This download includes:
- step-by-step instructions for setting up your Christmas escape room
- full supply list with links
- 2 graphics to use during the event
- printables with all coded messages/riddles
This product is a digital download, which means you will receive a link to download the files after completing the check-out process. Please note: It is too large of a file to view on a mobile device.
Lisa Witherspoon (verified owner) –
I used this with 2nd-5th graders today for Epiphany Sunday and they loved it! It did take me some effort to sort through it all in my own brain 🙂 and collect the supplies. I did purchase some supplies, especially the locks, invisible ink pens, and fake gold coins. I spent less than $100 & I bought double because It set it up in two rooms. It worked well and the kids were (barely) able to complete it in 45 minutes. I would be little concerned having kindergarten or first graders do it – they would definitely need some older kids with them to figure it all out! Thanks for the resource!
Marthe Hjortshoj (verified owner) –
I purchased this without knowing how many different supplies I would need to buy. Unfortunately, many of the items on this list are not ones you typically have in a supply closet. I don’t want to spend a hundred dollars or more buying supplies for this or rewriting the entire activity, so I’m not going to be able to use this. I’m pretty bummed because the idea of it seemed so fun and would have been great for my mid-week elementary youth group Christmas party in a few weeks.
Brittany Nelson –
Hi Marthe, We’re so sorry you’re unhappy with your download, and we’ve emailed you to follow up with more details. This escape room was created for $50 or less by the author, who tried to use supplies you’d already have on hand or could easily make. In the resource the author even writes: “I did not go out and buy lock boxes. I used whatever I could find. I used an Amazon box with a lock on it, I put a lock on an old VBS kit and I put some stuff in between two buckets and then locked them together. Get creative. I think I did this escape room for about $50.” Here’s a full list of the supplies needed for anyone who’s curious (and the download itself includes Amazon links for several items):
• 4 lock boxes—doesn’t have to be lock boxes, anything that locks will work
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas book
• Magnifying glass
• Jigsaw puzzle, 25 pieces or less
• Invisible Ink Pen
• Rock Hide-A-Key
• Brad (paper fastener)
• 4 Balloons
• Water Bottle Diversion Safe
• 6 Solo Cups
• Blacklight Flashlight
• Batteries for your blacklight flashlight
• Timer of your choice
• The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado (or Christmas book of your choice)
• Couple of envelopes
• Paper
• Pens
• Deck of Bicycle playing cards—the Bicycle brand playing cards tends to hold the invisible ink better because of its texture
• Gold/gold chocolate coins
• Recording device of your choice (your phone works)
• Post-It Notes
• Washi Tape/painters tape (not clear)
• Scissors
• Trash can
• At least 2 tables
• Board games—if only using one board game, hide it well
• Directional lock
• Key lock
• Number lock
• Word lock
Jennifer Williams (verified owner) –
I used this activity for an advent event last night! The kids loved it and it took about 45 minutes for them to find the gold! This is a pretty detailed activity and it did take a lot of time to set everything up! I would encourage anyone using this to allow plenty of time to gather all of the materials and put everything together! The directions and materials are very well put together; I highly recommend purchasing this resource!