Ideal gifts for escape room fans, puzzle and mystery lovers
With Christmas getting closer and closer it’s time to think about gift ideas. We know that some of you are already done with their shopping lists, but if you are still on the lookout for gifts, then look no further, as we’ve come with Christmas gift ideas that are ideal for an escape room fan, puzzle and mystery enthusiasts.
Mystery escape games
For all the mystery lovers and escape room fans, a mystery escape game that can be solved at home might be the perfect gift.
Witchery spell from DarkPark – embark on a magical mystery quest and help save 5 witches. Practise alchemy, spell casting and ancient rituals to solve the mysterious case. All the needed witchery artefacts are provided in the box.
’The Longest Night in Bell-Ville’ from Wacky Wheels – yup, that’s ours! :) In this mystery story puzzle book you’ll need to help the villagers of Bell-Ville with the preparations for the Longest Night celebrations. Solve the puzzles and finish all the assignments, in order to get everything ready on time.
Children of Wyrmwoods from Escape Tales – a story driven escape room in the form of a card game. During the game you’ll not only solve puzzles in order to discover the truth behind the mysterious story, but you will also have to make choices and your decisions will impact the outcome of the game.
Space box from Escapewelt – a wooden box full of puzzles and riddles. Can you solve them all in order to open the box and reveal the hidden secret?
Logical puzzles
For the brainiacs, math and logic lovers here are some gift proposals that might be right up their alley.
INSIDE3 – ever tried finding the exit in a maze? Now you can in a harder version, as you guide the ball through a labyrinth that you cannot see. For the more advanced puzzlers, harder variations are available.
Brainstring ball – a game for cube puzzle enthusiasts. Try to move the buttons in a pattern, but be careful not to get tangled! If you do, then it becomes an even more difficult puzzle.The Brainsting can be played by more than one person, which makes it even more fun.
Tumble maze – a mind game for logical thinkers. The aim is to guide the marble to the bottom, by placing the maze pieces. The game has forty different challenges on four different levels.
Tangram puzzle – one of the oldest puzzle games, originating from China. The 7 pieces, called tans, can form various shapes. Rumour has it this logical game was Napoleon’s favourite.
Packaging with a twist
No idea or time for a unique gift?No need to worry! Even if you decide to give a shop gift card, bottle of wine or money, you can still spice the gift up by handing it in a unique puzzle packaging.
Don’t break the bottle puzzle – why just give a bottle of glass, when you can make a game out of it! Before the bottle can be opened, the puzzle needs to be solved.
Money maze – show them the gift, but make them puzzle for it! In order to access the money, first a maze needs to be solved.
Cryptex puzzle pod – hide the gift inside the cryptex that will only open with the correct 5-letter combination. Don’t just give the code away, come up with a series of related cluse that can help solve it.
Puzzle pod junior – an easier cryptex version for kids and teens. The pod can hold gift cards or money bills and requires a 3 letter code word to unlock it.
Give it a personal touch
If you want to give a Christmas gift with a special meaning, then you might consider something personalized. Those are the kind of gifts anyone would like. Who wouldn’t like to receive something that is made especially for them?
Personalized comic strip from Make me a comic – get someone’s favourite memories captured on a comic stirp! Spike them up by adding some superhero characters.
NY times front page custom puzzle – custom puzzle of the front page of New York times from the date of your choosing. Pick any date with a special meaning and make it into the headlines puzzles. Dates to choose from go as far as the year 1851!
The book of everyone – a 50-page book with a great design celebrating the life of the person you choose to give it to. With some pages being editable, it can get even more personalized. There is also a possibility to include a video in augmented reality, which makes it a special gift.
Custom Coloring Pages from VelvetKatArt – create a custom colouring page or a storybook based on actual photos. Choose your favourite picture of a special or funny memory.
Book gifts
For all the bookworms, who like games and solving mysteries.
‘How to win at games and beat people’ by Tom Whipple – learn the inside tactics of many games and how to destroy your competition. Take your gaming to the next level and never lose at board games night again.
‘The Master Theorem: A Book of Puzzles, Intrigue, and Wit’ by M – this is not a typical puzzle book, but a great collection of escape-room-like puzzles and challenges with beautiful illustrations that will keep your brain occupied and teased for weeks to come!
‘Guess who’ by Christ McGeorge – a thriller story with a locked mystery plot. There’s one locked room with no escape, five suspects and a murdered man in the bathtub. There are only 3 hours to find the killer. Can you guess who it is: the cleaner, the student, the waitress, the lawyer or maybe the actor?
‘Find your adventure’ by Nicole Laure – a creative journal that will help you kick off a new adventure and spark your creativity. Explore the world around you and start different adventures.
Not so traditional jigsaw puzzles
For all the traditional puzzle lovers out there we have some unique proposals that will give them a special experience.
Jan van Haasteren puzzles – those are a must have for any puzzle fan!. The drawings are full of detail, colour and shown in a humorous way. For the mystery seeking enthusiasts there are always hidden objects on each puzzle: a shark fin, Sinterklaas, hands, dentures (fake teeth) and Jan’s self portrait.
Wasgij mystery puzzles – what if the picture you see on the puzzle box is not the actual puzzle you need to recreate? Those puzzles will make you use your imagination, as you need to make an image of what will happen to the people from the image on the box in the upcoming minutes.
Infinite Entropy wooden puzzle – this is for the true puzzle fanatics. An infinite puzzle, with a lot of possible combinations. Once you solve it, you can see that the pieces from the right can also fit on the left. Puzzling can go on endlessly.
Ravensburger escape puzzle – this is probably the ideal gift for puzzle and escape lovers. First you assemble the puzzle and once the picture is finished you can start solving the riddles to find the solution and escape!
Board games
Board games are a perfect gift to spend more fun time together. Here’s our selection of not typical types of games.
Throw throw burrito – tired of only playing card games? This game will definitely spice things up! You not only collect cards, but also…you guessed it – throw burritos at your opponents! You even get points for it. Get your aim ready, grab the burrito and go!
Black stories – 50 deadly stories, can you figure out what actually happened? After a brief description your goal is to find out what the situation was, by asking ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions. Great game to think outside the box!
Pandemic – a must play game! It’s a cooperative, where instead of going against the other players you actually have to all work together to prevent the viruses from spreading and stop the pandemic. Sounds familiar? Check if you can save the world!
100 Board games to play scratch poster – a joy for a true board games fan and an inspiration to play many more of the greatest board games ever created!
Hope that this Christmas gift guide will serve you as a good inspiration to find unique gifts. We included in it games and items that we ourselves play and use, given as gifts or have on our wish list. All the mentioned suggestions can be also given as gifts for other occasions, like birthdays, Mother’s and Father’s day, Valentine’s etc.
