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Clue Mystery Party -10yr- Professor Plum & Others

November 2008

Barbara in Lancaster, NY 14086

Special Mention

For my daughter's 10th birthday, we had a party based upon the popular Clue board game.  First, we compiled dress-up kits for the guests to get into character.  We put the costumes/props into plain-colored gift bags.  You can use your own ideas but here's what we did: 

COSTUMES Professor Plum: nerdy glasses, men's blazer or vest or cardiagn sweater and bow tie Mrs. Peacock: hat with ribbon and flowers (from $1 store), shawl, large brooch Mrs. White:  apron, chef hat Colonel Mustard:  safari helmet, pipe, compass Miss Scarlet: fur" stole tiara bit flash jewelry Mr. Green: buttoned shirt with pocket pocket protector nerdy glasses tie Detective: Sherlock Holmes-style cape and hat (old Halloween costume) Mr. Boddy: skeleton bones t-shirt draw Xs on closed eyes with eye liner You can also add a maid etc. if you have more guests. 

DECORATIONS Next we set up the rooms.  We don't live in a mansion so we improvised by using props and used areas indoor and outdoors. Ballroom: decorate with balloons and streamers set up a small table with snacks on a plate stand confetti and plastic champagne flutes filled with clear soda like Sprite.

Dining Room: cover a long table with a nice cloth set out nice candlesticks and a couple of place settings put out a couple of platters with snacks on them Kitchen: cutting board mixer rolling pin birthday cake

Conservatory:  We set up an outdoor chair with a sunhat and book in my rose garden.

Library:  books reading glasses in a room that has a very large bookcase

Billiard room: My front door is green so I printed a large clip-art of the pool balls in the rack and taped it to the front door. 

Hall: Flowers in a vase candy dish.

Lounge: Chaise lounge magazines big glass of ice water and plate of cookies.  We used the pool deck.

Study: Next to the computer we staged a large atlas dictionary calculator pencils & pens.  

For other decorations we hung yellow caution tape and used black and gold balloons plates cups etc. 

ACTIVITIES Now for the game.  You will need the deck of cards and envelope from your Clue game.  Select a room a suspect and a weapon and place them in the Confidential envelope.  Shuffle the rest of the cards and then hide two in each of your "rooms."  In each room I hung up a poem telling them where to go next.  Each guest started in a different room and then by following the poems to visit the rooms in order they were pretty well spread around the house.  Each girl got a clip board and pen with a copy of the Clue game sheet where you check off the suspects etc.  I enlarged it on the copier to make it easier.  I also gave each girl a "map" which was a clip-art of the Clue game board that I had labeled to tell them what area of my house was the billiard room etc.  The girls drew suspect names from a hat so there would be no arguing over who got to be Miss Scarlet. 

They were really wound up once they got their costumes.  I shouted Go and the kids started of to their first room to look for the cards.  Each time they found a card they checked that item off on their list and put the cards back in their hiding places so future sleuths wouldn't have an advantage.  The first person to correctly guess the suspect weapon and room cards that were in the Confidential envelope was the winner.  They could guess whenever they wanted but if they guessed wrong they were eliminated so most of them kept hunting for cards until they knew for sure.  It took about 30 minutes to play the game and the kids loved it so much we played again by sending them into an unused room and hiding the cards again while they weren't looking. 

PARTY SNACKS As noted above I put snacks all around in the rooms: cookies candies bagel pizza bites.  Everyone loved the champagne flutes.  The kids snacked before during and after the game.  Since I only used finger foods there was very little mess. 

CAKE The cake had chocolate frosting with a white "chalk outline" of a body.  Question marks a magnifying glass. 

FAVORS Winners of the Clue game received a magnifying glass or glasses/nose/mustache disguise.  For favors each girl kept her clipboard ($1 store) and pen and we got each of the a travel version of a board game for about $6 at Toys R Us.  The games were Trouble Connect 4 and Sorry.  It might sound like too much trouble to set up the rooms and costumes but I already had most of the costume pieces and I rounded them out with a trip to the Dollar Store.  My kids helped me with sorting the costume parts into the gift bags and staging the rooms and it didn't really take too long.  Once everything is in place you can easily play the game multiple times.  Everyone had so much fun being a detective!  "

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