Last Christmas Eve was a rough one. The Gingerbread Man—Gingey—had just been brutally murdered and no one knew who did it. I, as the head elf at Santa's shop, was in charge of the investigation. I had my eye on Mrs. Claus and Frosty, the rapping snowman. You're probably thinking I'm crazy after saying that, but that is truly how I spent Christmas Eve 2012. You see, every year my family hosts a Murder Mystery party on Christmas Eve. We started having Clue-esque holidays a couple years ago and it has become a family tradition. All of us "little kids" have grown up, so a lot of the excitement of Christmas Eve had disappeared—there was no more putting out cookies for Santa and waiting to hear footfalls on the roof. So we needed something to add a little jazz to our holiday now that we were all adults. And since my family is a little zany, we decided to have Murder Mystery parties. They're super easy to do because you can buy the games online. One person is in charge of sending out all the invitations and putting all the clues in envelopes. But other than that, there is no preparation for the game. In your invitation you learn who your character is, what their motive is and what your costume should look like. Yes,  you have to wear costumes, they're a must! There are lots of different Murder Mystery themes, which means every year you're dressed as something different. We've been a knock-off version of the Trumps who lived in Vegas—my brother, pictured above, was the Elvis impersonator. We've been cowboys. We've been pirates trying to find out who stole the booty. And most recently we've been citizens of the North Pole. The fun begins once your costumes are on and you're enjoying dinner. That's when someone suddenly dies and everyone begins to slowly piece together what happened. The game is broken into rounds, where each character questions another character about their whereabouts and motives. This is usually when some illicit affair is revealed, which can be slightly weird when you're playing with your family. Why is my mother aka Mrs. Claus secretly sleeping around with my cousin the snowman. By the time dessert is served, the murderer has been revealed and we are crying with laughter. It may be an odd way to spend the holidays, but it has given us many amazing memories that I treasure—and really that's what the holidays are all about. And if you're wondering who killed Gingey, you'll have to play the game to find out. What do you do on Christmas Eve?