North Pole & Santa Murder Mystery Party Food

1 Food By Any Other Name ...

Use the editable food labels in the game's decoration pack to give ordinary food a Christmas-themed name. Examples:

• Santa's Sausages
• Santa's Stew
• North Pole Nut Roast
• Elfie's Eclairs
• Mrs Claus's Mince Pies
• Reindeer Risotto
• Polar Bear Peppermints
• Naughty Nougat and Nice Nachos (a take on the Naughty and Nice List)

Ideally, then decorate this food in a festive way. See below.

2 Santa-Themed Food

Our mystery game is called "Is Santa Slayed?" and so any form of Santa-themed food is ideal for your party.

2.1 Santa's Sleigh

In the mystery game, Santa's sleigh is mysteriously broken and so a food sleigh is appropriate. And individual food sleighs for each guest are - surprisingly - easy to make.

• Use the Santa's sleigh place cards to include candies, chocolates or cookies for each guest: these place cards are provided in the murder mystery's decoration kit to create sleigh place name settings with the game character's name on each. Our how to make Santa's sleigh place cards page has detailed step-by-step instructions and also has a template available for those who are not playing our murder mystery. Each place card can be created using a single piece of paper and Sellotape. For added effect, use wrapped candy canes for the sleigh runners. Then add candies, chocolates or cookies to simulate presents. (See photo above.)
• Cheese and crackers: make a sleigh out of crackers and cheese and also use cheese to represent presents.
  • Cut a walking stick shape out of cheese to make the sleigh runners. Place rectangular crackers of different sizes on top of these runners, with the largest cracker on the base. Then top with cubes of cheese to represent presents; cherry tomatoes, dried fruits, and olives are also optional.
  • Timing: crackers could go soft if left exposed to the air. Ideally, plate shortly before serving; this might be fine if you are serving as part of an appetizer before your murder mystery begins. If you want to serve it later on in the game, then - possibly - prepare the cheese in advance and ask each guest to assemble their own sleigh. See who can produce the best-looking one!
• Chocolates or fudge: use candy canes to make the runners for a sleigh. Top with a rectangular-shaped food item such as a biscuit or a chocolate bar; then top with miniature chocolates, Smarties or berries to resemble presents. 
  • Timing: if you use wrapped biscuits or chocolate bars, this can be made in advance and placed on your table to wow your guests. Unwrapped biscuits may go soft over time.

2.2 Food Resembling Santa's Face and Clothes

Any form of circular or oval-shaped food can be made into a Santa face. Adult dishes might include a mousse or pate, trifle, cheesecake, or iced Christmas cake.  To do so add:

• a white beard made out of piped Mayonnaise, cauliflower florets or slices of Mozzarella, or crumbled Cheshire cheese (savory dishes) or piped whipped cream, white icing, white chocolate, or buttercream (sweet dishes)
• a red nose made out of a tomato half, a strawberry slice or red-colored icing or buttercream
• eyes and a smiling mouth made out of black olives, chocolate drops, edible eyes or black-colored whipped cream or icing
• a red and white hat made out of strawberries and whipped cream or tomato slices and Mayonnaise

Take these ideas to the next level by creating a Santa snack board.  Have a large Santa face in the middle of the board made out of food (see above). Then surround this with chopped vegetables, grapes, cheese slices, olives and crackers.

Large strawberries can be turned into a Santa hat by sitting them on a white chocolate base and then topping them with mini marshmallows, white chocolate drops, or whipped cream.

Red-iced cookies can be made into a Santa suit by adding a black belt and buttons made out of icing.

Many Christmas cookie cutter sets include a Santa one. (I chose a 9-piece set from Keepaty, via Amazon, as that included a variety of festive shapes.) Cut the cookie dough and then decorate the finished cookie with colored icing. 

3 North Pole-Themed Food

The murder mystery is set in the North Pole so choosing a North Pole theme enhances the game's atmosphere.

3.1 Green, Red and White Food

Select foods that fall within the green, red and white color scheme to give your party an instant North Pole theme. This will look especially effective when you combine it with green, red and white table decorations and when all (or most) of your food is color-coordinated.  Make some dishes into festive shapes such as a star, a Christmas tree, or a wreath for extra North Pole magic. Also consider using foods traditionally associated with North Pole parties such as candy canes/peppermint, chocolate and gingerbread. Or use traditional festive foods such as turkey, mincemeat, cranberries, and mulled wine.

You can opt for the typical children's spread such as marshmallows, white popcorn, or sugar-dusted donuts. However, our "Is Santa Slayed?" game is aimed at both adults and families. With a bit of imagination, you can use the same principles to create a party spread that is suitable for adult visitors to your North Pole shindig.

3.1.1 Savory Food Examples

3.1.1.1 Festive Flavors

• Create a simple festive cheeseboard by using a cookie cutter to cut a festive shape into a Camembert and fill this with cranberry jelly. Arrange red and white cheeses and red and white crackers around this. Sprigs of rosemary or parsley could add a green accent. (See photo above.)
• Serve a baked white cheese such as a Camembert with a cranberry filling. Serve with fingers of white bread and slices of celery, red peppers and green peppers.
• Turkey slices or sandwiches with cranberry sauce.
• Arrange overlapping turkey and ham slices in a wreath shape; add greenery in the form of sprigs of rosemary or rocket or watercress leaves. Optionally have a central dish of cranberry sauce.

3.1.1.2 Other Ideas

• Arrange red and green crudities around a central dip such as a dish of Green Goddess dressing or a Queso dip. Crudities could include broccoli florets, mange tout, cucumber slices, celery sticks, spring onions, celery, green pepper slices, red pepper slices, radish slices and cherry tomatoes.
• Arrange skewers of cherry tomatoes and Mozzarella balls in a wreath shape around a central dip such as a white bean dip or guacamole. Add mint leaves or basil leaves for greenery.
• Fill white rice Sushi rolls with cucumber or avocado.
• Serve an asparagus, watermelon, and feta cheese salad. Add a festive touch by cutting the watermelon into stars or other festive shapes.
• Serve a Greek salad with green lettuce, red tomatoes, cucumber, red and green peppers, and Feta cheese slices. Optionally add green olives, capers and basil or mint leaves. 

3.1.2 Sweet Food Examples

3.1.2.1 Festive Flavors

Eggnog: in the "Is Santa Slayed?" mystery game, Santa is seen to be very fond of Eggnog. Eggnog can be served without alcohol for children; many adults, however, might find that including rum or brandy adds a welcome kick to a creamy drink. Try:

• An Eggnog dip with festive-shaped gingerbread. (See photo above.)
• Eggnog mousse, Eggnog cake, Eggnog gingerbread trifle or Eggnog cheesecake.
• Eggnog panna cotta with cranberry sauce or redcurrant compote. Optionally add an adult touch and add orange liqueur to the cranberries or redcurrants.

Other festive flavors:

• Create a Yule log and cover this in white chocolate ganache. Then decorate with redcurrants and holly leaves.
• Mulled wine jelly, mulled wine panna cotta, mulled wine trifle or cheesecake topped with a mulled wine glaze. Optionally top with a whole star anise.
• White chocolate peppermint fudge or white chocolate bark. Optionally top with crushed candy canes but be aware that some may not care for the hard crunch of the candy canes mixed with a softer sweet.
• Cheesecake pops dipped in white chocolate and covered in red and green sprinkles.
• Mincemeat Bakewell tart topped with white icing. Instead of the conventional glace cherry on the top, turn this into holly berries by having fresh cherries and holly leaves made out of green icing.

3.1.2.2 Other Ideas

• Serve Eton Mess topped with a mint leaf, fresh raspberries, strawberries cranberries, and green chocolate sprinkle balls. For a festive flavor, add some sweetened cranberries to the conventional strawberries. Optionally, serve in wine glasses rimmed with red edible glitter sugar. (In the photo above, we used red sugar from Sugarflair.)
• Serve a Pavlova with a raspberry, strawberry or cranberry topping. For extra creativity, arrange the berries into a star shape on top of the cream.
• Half dip strawberries into white chocolate.
• White chocolate dip or mousse served with fresh berries, green grapes and slices of red velvet cake.

• Serve cupcakes of your choice in candy cane cupcake liners and top with white icing or cream cheese frosting; sprinkle with red and green cake sprinkles or add a cranberry or other berry dusted in icing sugar.

3.2 Reindeer, Candy Cane and Snowmen Food

3.2.1 Reindeer Food

Reindeer food is particularly appropriate for "Is Santa Slayed?" as the game features two reindeer: Deerie Deer and Chaser. It could also be appropriate for our other festive murder mystery ("Murder at the Christmas Party") as that is set in the Rizzi Reindeer Hotel.

Many ordinary dishes with a brown or fawn color can be made to resemble reindeer by adding:

• edible eyes - or eye whites made out of a small circle of Mayonnaise, whipped cream or icing sugar and eye centers made out of black olives, colored icing or miniature chocolate drops
•  a nose made with half a cherry tomato (savory dishes) or a glace cherry or red Smartie (sweet dishes)
• antlers made out of Pretzels or icing sugar

Examples include:

• Chocolate-covered cupcakes
• Slices of chocolate brownie cake
• Sandwiches made out of brown bread and shaped into an elongated triangle to represent the long face of a reindeer

Alternatively, buy a set of Christmas cookie cutters and use the reindeer shapes to cut cookie dough, pizza, pastry or bread slices. You could serve your creations together on a plate or else use them to decorate other dishes. For example, make gingerbread reindeer cookies and then use these to decorate a gingerbread trifle. 

3.2.2 Candy Cane Food

Candy canes have become widely associated with North Pole party food. They are typically red and white but you can also use green and white. They are typically flavored with peppermint. As well as the conventional cane shape, you could also opt for circular swirls of red and white colors. A few ideas:

• Make a candy cane shape out of alternating slices of Mozarella and either beefsteak tomatoes or salami slices. Optionally add curves of green pesto or serve with a dish of green or red pesto.
•  Make a candy cane shape out of strawberry slices and either banana slices or cake circles covered in white chocolate.
  • Note: covering the banana slices in white chocolate stops them from going brown and enables you to create the candy cane ahead of your party.
• Use cookie cutters to make a candy cane-shaped pizza and layer them with alternating slices of Mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes. Optionally add swirls of green pesto.
• Use cookie cutters to make candy-cane-shaped cookies and decorate with red and white icing.
• Make candy cane dough or cookies without cookie cutters. Have two strands of dough or cookie dough: one white and one colored with red food coloring. Twist these together into a rope formation and then shape into a candy cane shape. Optionally flavor the two sets of dough with contrasting flavors. For a savory example, flavor the white dough with Feta cheese and the red dough with sun-dried tomatoes. For a sweet example, flavor the white dough with vanilla and the red dough with strawberry or raspberry flavor.
• Buy candy cane sweets and use whole or crushed to decorate desserts. For example, dip cookies in white chocolate and then sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Note, however, that, when I tried this for our mystery party, we all preferred chocolates without the crunch of the candy canes.
• Use crushed candy canes to rim pudding dishes.

2.2.3 Snowmen, Ice and Igloo Food

Edible snowmen are easy to make using two or three circles of white food of different sizes. The larger circle forms the base; the smaller circle forms the head. A simple example of this would be two different-sized circular white cheeses.

Then add:

• eyes and a smiling mouth made out of raisins, smarties, chocolate chips, black grapes, black olives or black sesame seeds
• a nose made out of a carrot, half an orange Smartie, an orange jelly bean or orange icing

Optionally also add:

• a hat made out of an Oreo biscuit with a chocolate "glued" to it with icing sugar, a round sweet or a miniature ice-cream cornet
• buttons made out of cherry tomatoes, olives, Smarties or chocolate drops
• a scarf made out of icing or marzipan

An igloo cake is also a great centerpiece. Sharon's fantastic igloo cake (see below) is topped with a miniature Santa.

4 Foods With a Festive Shape

In addition to the Santa, candy cane, snowman and reindeer shapes mentioned on this page, think Christmas wreaths, trees or stockings and also stars. Alternatively, think holly leaves and berries.

For example, bake dough balls into a Christmas tree shape. Once cooked, then sprinkle green pesto between the cracks of the balls and arrange sundried or cherry tomatoes as baubles. Alternatively use sprigs of rosemary or shredded basil leaves and use pomegranate seeds as baubles.

See our festive food presentation ideas section for further examples.

5 Drinks Appropriate to a Santa or North Pole Theme

Festive alcoholic drinks with a Santa or North Pole theme:

• Bad Santa Cocktail
• Santa's Hat Cocktail
• Candy Cane Cocktail
• North Pole Cocktail
• Gingerbread Martini
• St Nick's Flip
• Eggnog (see 6.3.1 below)

Non-alcoholic drinks appropriate to a Santa party:

• Hot chocolate - ideal to drink after your murder mystery has finished. Optionally make a hot chocolate bar and allow guests to add their own marshmallows, peppermint bark, whipped cream, nuts and syrups. Optionally have dishes of candy canes, peppermint fudge or chocolate bark topped with crushed candy canes.
• A non-alcoholic version of Eggnog. (See 6.3.1 below.)
• Candy cane mocktails. Optionally rim the glass with crushed candy canes.
• Gingerbread mocktail.

Alternatively, use your favorite tipple and add a festive decoration with a cocktail stick of cranberries or a rim of red or green sugar on the glasses.

6 Food and Drink Mentioned in the Mystery Game

6.1 Mince Pies and Christmas Cakes

In the game, Mrs Claus serves (bad) mince pies and Christmas cake in her café. Mrs Claus mistakenly believes Santa likes her mince pies.

Both mince pies and Christmas cakes are easy to source. Buy or make as you wish. Optionally use the editable food labels in the game's Decoration Kit to label them as "Mrs Claus' Inedible Mince Pies" or "North Pole Christmas Cake". 

6.2 Grass Pies and Grass Stew

Mrs Claus insists that the reindeer eat grass pies and grass stew. This is a source of conflict in the game. Serve a simulated grass pie or stew and use the editable food labels in the game's decoration kit to have messages such as "Grass Pie - Only Fit for Reindeer" or "Grass Stew - a Reindeer Favorite".

6.2.1 Simulate Grass Pies

• Make a goat cheese and spinach quiche, a green pea pie, a Spanakopita pie or spinach and artichoke vol au vents. Once cold, sprinkle the top with cut chives to represent grass.
• Serve Matcha Pie. This sweet dessert gets its vibrant green color from powdered green tea. Top with green-colored buttercream piped using a special grass piping nozzle. For extra taste, flavor the buttercream with a complimentary flavor such as lemon. Alternatively, use desiccated coconut or sweet Vermicelli colored with green food coloring.
• Make green Krispie cakes.

6.2.2 Simulate Grass Stews

Make a green vegetable stew, a Nigerian green stew, a deep green lentil stew or another stew of your choice. When serving, sprinkle with fresh chopped herbs.

6.3 Drinks

6.3.1 Eggnog

In our mystery game, jolly Mr Claus loves drinking Eggnog. Advocaat is a similar but not identical drink that can be bought commercially. Some companies sell Eggnog syrup for coffee. You could also try making your own Eggnog - for example, Cusine at Home's cooked Eggnog recipe can be left without alcohol for a family situation or mixed with rum or bourbon for an adult party.

6.3.2 Santa's Energy and Recovery Drinks

A key part of the plot of "Is Santa Slayed?" is that Santa drinks a light green Energy Drink and a darker green Recovery Drink.

Green soft drinks include Green Cola, Appletiser, and Fanta Green Cream Soda.

Alcoholic green drinks include Green Crème de Menthe, Green Chartreuse or cocktails such as a Grasshopper.

Alternatively, serve your favorite soft or alcoholic drinks and add some green food coloring.

7 Our North Pole Mystery Game Buffet - Menu With Timings and Verdict

We opted for a buffet that we could prepare in advance so that we could enjoy the murder mystery alongside our guests with minimal time spent in the kitchen during the party. We:

• played three rounds and then had the main course of the buffet
• played the final three rounds and the Whodunnit round, made the Accusations and listened to the Audio Solution before having the dessert buffet.

We had an adult party and so we wanted an adult take on the conventional North Pole party food.

7.1 Main Course Buffet

Crudities and a Green Goddess dip. We used red and green vegetables and grapes: red peppers, tomatoes, radishes, green peppers, grapes, blanched broccoli florets. We added a festive touch by adding a Christmas tree made out of chives to the top of the dip and using a small star cookie cutter to make stars made out of a large cucumber.

Timing: We made the dip the day before. The crudities were cut and arranged on the morning of our party and the whole plate was refrigerated.

North Pole cheese and cracker board. We used a small star-shaped cookie cutter and a sharp knife to cut a star-shaped hole in the center of a Camembert cheese. This hole was approximately 1-2 cm deep. We then filled this with cranberry sauce. We then placed this Camembert in the center of the cheeseboard and arranged red and white cheese and red and white crackers around it. Sprigs of rosemary added a splash of greenery.

Timing: On the morning of the party, we made the Camembert and cranberry star, arranged this with the cheese on the cheeseboard, and also picked the rosemary.  We then refrigerated the cheeseboard and added the crackers just before serving.

Christmas tree salad. We used a bag of frisée lettuce for the tree branches, a spring onion for the trunk, and slices of pepper for the base. The tree ornaments were made out of baby tomatoes and watermelon stars.

Timing: we cut the watermelon stars on the morning of the party. We also washed the tomatoes and cut the pepper and spring onion. Shortly before the party, we washed the lettuce and arranged it on the plate. We then refrigerated.

Spiral of green olives.

Timing: we arranged this the day before and refrigerated.

Sandwiches. We made two festive sets of sandwiches: turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce and Wensleydale and cranberry cheese with additional cranberry sauce. We also made three general sets of sandwiches: egg and Mayonnaise, herby soft cheese, and salmon and cucumber. We tried making some sandwiches into festive shapes using festive cookie cutters on the bread; others we left as triangles.

Timing: we made these a few hours ahead of the party and cling-filmed and refrigerated.

7.2 Dessert Buffet

Eggnog dip with gingerbread cookies. We used cookie cutters to create different festive shapes for the cookies.

Timing: the Eggnog dip was made the day before and refrigerated. The cookies were made two days before and placed in an air-tight container.  

Christmassy Eton Mess: a standard Eton Mess recipe with the addition of cranberries. (We made this as it was a way of using up the egg whites left over from making the Eggnog. See Verdict in 7.4 below.)

Timing: we made the meringue the day before the party. We whipped the cream and washed the berries on the morning of the party. We also rimmed the glasses with red edible sugar sprinkles. We used Red Edible Glitter Sugar Sprinkles from Sugarflair. Just before serving, we added the meringue into the cream and berry mixture and spooned into glasses. (We left this final step until the last minute so that the meringue did not dissolve into the cream mixture.)

Festive cupcakes. We took two standard flavors of Christmas: cranberry and cinnamon. We made three types of cupcakes: cranberry and orange, chocolate and cinnamon, apple and cinnamon. We used festive cupcake liners from SANNIX.

Timing: we made the cupcakes (minus the toppings) a week before and froze them. The day before, we defrosted the cakes, added the toppings, and refrigerated.

Candies for the sleighs. We made two different types of candies: white chocolate and cranberry "bark" and marshmallows covered in white chocolate and crushed candy canes. 

Timing: these were made the day before and refrigerated.

7.3 Drinks

In the mystery game, Santa drinks Eggnog and so I felt that Eggnog was a must. We made this the day before and were able to use some of it in the Eggnog dip. (See 7.2 above.)

With the main course, we had sparkling wine. We added a simple festive touch to the glasses by threading cranberries and raspberries through cocktail sticks and placing these on the top of each glass. With the dessert, we had Eggnog.

7.4 Verdict

The main course buffet looked wonderful and the Green Goddess dressing worked wonderfully well with the crudities. The open sandwiches cut with festive cookie cutters were "OK" but were probably not worth the effort. If I had been making this meal again, I would have replaced the sandwiches with bread rolls and plates of sliced meat and fish. This would have been easier and I could have kept to a North Pole red, white and green color scheme by having plates of white meat such as turkey, and red meat such as ham. For the Pescatarians, I would have added red salmon decorated with cucumber. For the vegetarians, I would have provided a simple Egg Mayonnaise sprinkled with red paprika.

We all agreed that - individually - each dessert was lovely. Taken together with the richness of the Eggnog, however, the overall mix was a bit too creamy. We felt that Eggnog would have worked better with non-creamy festive puddings such as mince pies or Christmas cake. We also felt that the Eggnog dip would have benefitted from a selection of fruit skewers.

None of us had ever tried Eggnog before. With one exception, we all enjoyed it as an after-dinner drink to savor and sip with the desserts. We all felt that - for adults - a shot of rum or brandy helped to give it a "kick". For a family setting, however, the Eggnog recipe could be used without alcohol.