The Christmas Files · Case dossier

A Cold Christmas

A ski lodge in the Snowy Mountains · July 1973

“Everyone came up together. Nobody is going down until this is settled.”

The scene, before you arrive

A ski lodge in the Snowies in the middle of a July season, full of people who have been coming up every winter for years and know precisely which subjects to avoid at dinner. One of them is dead before the second night. The road out is a long way down and the weather has closed in.

That is as much as the file will give you. The rest comes out on the night, one piece of evidence at a time, and the room will be well into the evening before the shape of it shows.

Inside the file

What you get

The script

Fully scripted evening

Every act cued, every scene set, your lines where you need them. No prep, no printing, no experience required.

The evidence

Clues arrive in stages

Evidence and private dossiers drop to your guests' phones as the night unfolds, one act at a time.

The host

You play the victim

Set the table, welcome your guests, then haunt the evening while they work out who wanted you gone.

The table

6 to 12 players

A core cast carries the case, with flexible roles as your table grows. Latecomers can join as observers.

The stage

App-hosted

The case runs from any screen in the room. Your TV is the stage, the phones are the wings.

Original fiction

The lodge and everyone in it are invented. Original fiction, written for an Australian Christmas in July.

Unlike our eight Case Files, which reopen real unsolved cases, this file is invented from end to end. There is no historical verdict to look up and nothing to spoil by reading around it. The solution is fair, the evidence is all in the room, and your table settles it.

Want a real one? The eight Case Files are genuine unsolved cases with real inquests.

Host A Cold Christmas.

Host it at your own table. Nothing to print, no script to learn, and you play the victim, so you finally get to attend your own party.

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