Puzzles and riddles can be incorporated into any holiday or themed party. I really enjoy escape rooms and this Halloween party had the feeling of an escape room without destroying my house because someone thought a clue was hiding in a vent. The solutions to the puzzles are all Halloween themed. You could modify the solutions to fit any theme or holiday.
One key aspect that is different from an escape room is that all the puzzles were available at the start. This allowed the guests to divide up the puzzles and solve them in small groups. Some puzzles also took longer to solve because they involved coloring or matching.
All the puzzles and riddles are available in a download kit at the end.
Finding the Puzzles
Although all the puzzles were available from the start, the group still had to work to collect them. Each puzzle was on a string of yarn and the yarn crisscrossed throughout a section of the room. Guests released the puzzles and clues by rolling up the yarn.
Word Puzzles and Riddles
I used twelve different puzzles and most of them are explained in this post. Some were straightforward like a bike lock that used a word as the combination. The solution for the lock was one of the available puzzle answers. Other puzzles were riddles:
“Oh, you can be positive that a negative attitude won’t help you one bit!”
In this one, most people notice the words “positive” and “negative” and might think the answer is a battery, which is one of the options. However, if you notice it says “oh”, “be positive” and “a negative” which are all blood types – O, B+, A-
Having a list of available solutions or pictures gives a wider range of clues you can give. Here are some of the other riddles and the answers are provided in the download kit.
Luna, Salem, Figaro, Binx
I went to the store and I bought apples, butter, ____ , and dog food
I have a name, but it isn’t my name. My face shows signs of age.
Visual Puzzles
This particular Halloween party was themed around colors. For that reason, most of the puzzles were visual and also incorporated colors, color names, or coloring.
Solve this puzzle using the names of these foods. Swipe to the next image to reveal the answer.
These circles might look a little dizzying, but just count the rings of each color. Convert that number to a letter of the alphabet and you’ve solved it!
Swipe to the next image to reveal the answer.
A color by number was more time consuming to complete but easy to solve. After filling in all the colors, it reveals a word found on the solution board.
I created this color by number puzzle using rectangles in PowerPoint. When you look at the blank page, no words or shapes stand out.
Swipe to the next image to reveal the answer.
This word search has color names hidden in it and looks very simple. However, the trick is seeing which letters are leftover and using them to reveal one of the puzzle solutions.
Swipe to the next image to reveal the answer.
This last visual puzzle is a twist on a word search. Instead of searching for words, you are searching for patterns of colors. I cut large popsicle sticks in half and then colored the pattern on the stick with markers.
After matching all the sticks with the grid of colors, it reveals a word found on the solution board. This puzzle was a little trickier to make because I had to ensure the color pattern only appeared in one place on the board. Converting the colors to numbers or letters makes it easier to create the puzzle and check there are no repeating patterns. Then change back to colors after it is ready.
Swipe to the next image to reveal the answer.
Puzzle Answers
In the room was a board with 20 pictures of possible puzzle solutions. This narrowed the choices but some pictures could be interpreted in different ways (e.g., tombstone or grave). The pictures were on small envelopes and inside was a puzzle piece.
After solving all the clues and riddles, the group assembled the puzzle pieces. If all the answers were correct, the puzzle said “Yes”. The envelopes for the wrong solutions also contained puzzle pieces that would not fit or be duplicate pieces. I used a blank puzzle that can be easily customized to what you want the picture or answer to be.
Puzzle Download Kit
The riddles and PowerPoint files for the visual puzzles are all contained in a zip file you can download below.
