Kelowna Christmas Party Ideas: Corporate Murder Mystery Nights Your Team Will Talk About All Year

Every December, Kelowna offices run the same play. Book a nice room, order the turkey, give a speech, hand out a few gift cards and watch everyone sit with the exact same people they eat lunch with all year. By nine, half the room is eyeing the exits.

Here is a better plan: kill someone. Professionally, of course.

A Smoking Gun murder mystery turns your staff Christmas party into a night your team actually participates in. Instead of watching entertainment, they become the investigators, grilling suspects, trading theories over dinner and accusing each other of murder with a glass of Okanagan red in hand. We have been staging interactive murder mysteries across Canada since 1987, and our Kelowna troupe brings the whole production to you. There is a reason we say people are dying to see us.

Built for Corporate Parties and Team Building

Corporate parties and team building are what we do best. The trouble with most office Christmas parties is that nobody has anything to do together. A murder mystery fixes that without anyone noticing they are being team built. Colleagues from different departments end up on the same table of amateur detectives. The quiet one from finance spots the clue everyone missed. Your top salesperson interrogates a suspect with alarming enthusiasm, and suddenly you understand their closing rate.

It is team building with a body count, which is why plenty of Christmas clients book us again later in the year for corporate team building sessions.

Your Local Okanagan Cast

Our Kelowna troupe is coordinated by local producer Bonnie Gratz, who brings together area performers for shows that use Smoking Gun’s established scripts while still feeling spontaneous and specific to the people in the room. Because the cast is based here, there is no extra travel fee for shows in Kelowna. The troupe also performs several public shows each year at Revelry, in addition to private and corporate bookings. This season the Kelowna cast has already staged CLUE: Murder Is NOT a Game, Hillbilly Wedding and Mafia Murders there. Want to see us in action before you book? Catch a public show at Revelry first, then steal the best ideas for your own party. Upcoming dates are on our public shows page.

How the Night Unfolds

The show is built around your party, not dropped into the middle of it. It starts at cocktail hour, when our actors arrive in character, mingle with your guests and start stirring up trouble. Personalities clash, secrets slip out and clues appear between conversations and courses. Once dinner is served the plot thickens, characters work the room from table to table, and at some point somebody meets an extremely suspicious end.

Then your guests take over. Everyone receives a suspect list and a ballot early in the evening. They question the suspects, compare evidence and hand in their solution before our detective names the killer. The sharpest mind in the room earns the Super Sleuth certificate. The most entertaining wrong answer takes home the Bumbling Fool award, which, frankly, is the one your team will fight over.

Your guests are the investigators, never the performers. Nobody memorizes lines and nobody gets dragged onto a stage. Keen sleuths can grill every suspect, while everyone else eats, drinks and enjoys the carnage from a safe distance. You can read more about the format on our interactive murder mysteries page.

Christmas Shows with Real Holiday Chaos

Our Christmas scripts are written for the season, not regular shows with a Santa hat slapped on top:

• Murder at the Mistletoe Mall. It is the mall’s annual staff appreciation party, and Employee of the Year wins a trip for two to Paris plus a $50,000 cash prize. The Mall Santa, Mrs. Claws and Buddy the Elf all want it badly. Some of them want it murderously.

• Two Santas Sleighing. The visionary CEO of North Pole Enterprises has died, and your guests are contenders to replace him. Some of them show up in Santa suits.

• Resort to Murder at the North Pole. Our most requested show, Resort to Murder, given a festive twist, with Nicolas and Wanda Claus running a new spa at the North Pole.

Every other script in our library can get a dose of Christmas spirit too, and custom scripts are available if you want a story built around your company. Browse them all on our scripts page. We can keep things corporate safe, or let it run cheekier for an adult party. Tell us who is in the room and we will match the tone. Fair warning: HR tends to enjoy the cheekier version more than they admit.

Where We Perform Around Kelowna

If a space can serve dinner, it can host a murder. Our Kelowna troupe serves the Central Okanagan, including Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country and Peachland. Wineries, resorts, restaurants, hotel event rooms, your own office or even your home all work well. We have also performed at Lakeshore Place, Sparkling Hill Resort, the Kal in Vernon and Revelry.

Shows can head north toward Vernon and south through Summerland and Penticton, with Oliver and Osoyoos possible for the right booking. If your party is outside Kelowna, send us the venue and date and we will confirm the cast and any travel costs before you commit.

You provide the venue and the meal. We bring the characters, costumes, props, clues and the detective. All we ask for is a small backstage area for costume changes, props and the occasional victim, plus a sound system for groups over 50 or rooms with tricky acoustics.

What It Costs and When to Book

Most Smoking Gun shows run between $1,000 and $4,000 CAD depending on group size, the number of actors and travel. Contact us for more info and a custom quote, we are happy to work with your budget where we can. Got more questions? Our FAQ covers the details.

Timing is everything in December. We generally need at least two weeks’ notice, but November and December dates fill up first, so the earlier the better. Date coming up fast? Ask anyway, because cast availability changes week to week.

Give Your Team a Christmas Party Worth Gossiping About

Your team has worked hard all year. Give them a Christmas party with a mystery to solve, a few outrageous accusations and a story they will still be retelling at the next staff meeting. Get a quote from our Kelowna troupe today, or call us toll free at 1-855-MURDER-1 (687-3371). A staff Christmas party is a very good night for a murder!