by EK Wills
When your kids go to high school, they’re too old for the birthday parties you find in party books - hide and seek doesn’t cut it anymore because they want something more expensive or glamorous or what their friends have.
Our daughter’s birthday is in March when there were 3 other birthday parties and everyone was jostling for party dates. The pizza and movie option had been done and the easy pool party had also been done. It was looking like we had only expensive options: go to the movies, out for dinner or to a theme park as the standard options.
Then I realised that she was watching Pretty Little Liars non stop and it occurred to me we could do a Host a Murder with that theme.
I’d never done a Host a Murder party but had always thought it would be fun so set about to work out how to do it. I looked at Cluedo and talked to people who had been to one and knew I was in for some behind the scenes plotting.
I researched the characters online, looked at previous themes on the show for who did what and how they were connected, then came up with a plot including the show’s many red herrings.
It was a gamble because my daughter was concerned that it might be cheesy or boring or too hard to figure out. Thankfully, all the complexity paid off and the day was a hit.
The girls were enthusiastic because it was relevant to their interest in the show plus it involved using their technology – cue the phone – to receive clues.
The birthday girl got to read out instructions and the reveal at the end but there were enough clues for the girls to get a good portion of the Whodunnit.
We had props in the form of the following:
1. murder weapon – a shovel with an evidence tag attached.
2. Clues such as a diary with a post it, genogram of the complex family connections – it’s ridiculously convoluted
3. Porcelain doll reflective of an episode and theme in the show
4. swimming ribbons to represent one of the characters, Paige
5. mirror, sunglasses, redcoat with a name tag, even a ransom note
Half the clues led to food or drink items such as hot chocolate (rather than coffees that the girls in the show constantly drink), pizza (love $5 Dominoes) and popcorn. We also made games out of these like clues hidden in the bottom of the popcorn bowl.
Other games included Spencer’s Pill Popping using white marshmellows and they had to see how many they could pop at once then tell someone a secret from their character card. It took a while to figure out which sweet to use as I didn’t want the girls to choke on them but the marshmellows worked well. Be warned you will need a spittoon as it is hard to swallow.
The other big caveat to doing a party of this type is the level of involvement required. You have to be close to the action in order to know when to cue the clues like sending a text (and a group text with blocked caller ID helps with this, plus pre-written texts in notes to copy and paste in). You may also need to explain and adapt to your crowd.
It is a great way to get siblings and family members involved as assistants in the set up and on the day eg. They can ring the door bell to deliver the ransom note then duck back around the side of the house unnoticed.
The whole thing went for an hour but we managed to stretch it with food and drink to an hour and a half. Best of all, it cost about $100 in total. We also had a hot day so the girls cooled off in the pool afterwards, followed by I-scream (ice cream) cake.
If you’re up for the challenge and would like to have a go at a PLL Host a Murder, check pinterest for characters, game plan for the day, set up and reveal. Feel free to have a go at changing who the murderer is, as well as A and redcoat. I would love to hear how yours goes!
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