Murder Mystery Tea Party

I have always wanted to do a murder mystery themed tea party because I thought it might be interesting to combine elegance with just a touch of horror! So this week I finally went ahead and organized one! Special thank you to my mom and dad for helping me with the story line and other details! And thank you also to my grandma, sisters, and the D'Angelo family for attending and participating!

For this event I kept the menu relatively basic by preparing simple finger sandwiches (egg salad as well as cucumber) and a fruit tart. To add to the theme, I iced some sugar cookies with black question marks. My mom used the same black icing to draw the outline of a body on top of the cake, but added some colorful flowers to balance out the gruesomeness. ;)

The setting was a high school reunion! In attendance was a tough-girl bully, perky ex-cheerleader, glitzy celebrity, exhausted mother, successful business woman, cafeteria lunch lady, and drunken teacher. Each of these party goers were also suspects in a murder. I played the part of the police officer investigating the crime. As soon as all of my guests had arrived, I welcomed them into the living room, listed the character choices and let them decide who wanted to be who! Prior to the event, I had put out a bunch of dress-up clothes, accessories, and props that corresponded with each character so that they could all look the part! Once everyone was dressed up, I took their "mug shots"! We used poster board, black paint, and chalk to create a line up for the background and a sign to hold like they do in police departments. Another idea I thought of last minute but didn't have time to put together was for everyone to wear "Hello my name is _" name tags like they do at high school reunions.

After everyone had their picture taken, we ventured into the dining room where the tea party was set up. I got everyone started with some tea and then passed out some materials for the game. Each player received three pieces of paper; one had their alibi written on it, one had some type of evidence to prove their innocence, and one was blank for taking notes. (I made sure to have pens and pencils on the table as well.) I explained that they could look at their own papers, but that they couldn't show anyone else until prompted to do so by the police officer later in the game. I also told everyone to hold off on predictions about the crime until the end when it would be time to discuss. Everyone was encouraged to role play as much or as little as they wanted to by taking on their character's persona or developing believable relationships with other characters. For example, my guests who played the parts of the bully and the cheerleader had a pretend feud going on. And everyone was saying things that you might expect to hear at a high school reunion such as, "It's been so long, we need to catch up!" or "It's so good to see you after all these years, you haven't aged a day!" etc...

Following a bit of mingling, it was time for the intro. I - the police officer - entered breaking up the gathering to announce the murder of one of their graduating classmates, the jock. I identified both the location and time of the incident and explained that each person at the party was a suspect in this mystery and that one of them is actually guilty of the crime. One at a time I would accuse a character stating their individual motive. (All of this information was written out and put on my clip board before the party.) After each accusation, that specific suspect would state their alibi and pass around the evidence for everyone to see. This is also when I would serve the treats and refill the tea cups. Once everyone got a chance to hear the alibi and see the evidence, I would go on to share the motive of another player who would then reveal their alibi and evidence and so on until every single player had been addressed.

Using all of the information given throughout the game, it was up to the suspects to determine "who dunnit"! Everyone worked together in the final discussion, sharing their data and reasoning until they eventually realized that one of the alibis didn't quite add up and thus cracked the case!

There are a lot of murder mystery packages available for purchase online which is great! But I decided to get creative and put together an original story! My mom and I came up with the high school reunion theme and developed all the characters. Then my dad helped me work out the structure of the game and write each of the motives, alibis, and evidence. He and I also came up with the conclusion ourselves and didn't tell my mom so that she could participate fairly! When we started, it seemed nearly impossible that we'd be able to pull it off, but we ended up completing everything in just two days! If you are feeling enticed to put together a murder mystery tea party of your own but don't know where to begin, consider using the guidelines I shared in this post, but just add your own details!