Christmas treasure hunt clues for teens

How to run a Christmas treasure hunt for teenagers

Teenagers will tell you they are too old for a treasure hunt. The Teens edition agrees with them, out loud: the rhymes tease about phone batteries, vanishing snacks and the floor that is not a place for clothes. The tone is dry rather than cute, and the last card admits it: "yet here you are, and fair enough".

1. Open the Teens file in a web browser, print it and cut along the dashed lines. The cards are laid out four per sheet.
2. Keep card 1. Hide card 2 at the place card 1 points to, card 3 at the place card 2 points to, and so on. The answer key lists all 24 places in order.
3. Put the present under the Christmas tree, which is where card 24 leads.
4. Hand over card 1, or leave it on their breakfast plate.

Make the prize worth the walk

With teenagers the final prize carries the hunt. Put the main present at the end, or a gift card in an envelope. Along the route, add something small at two or three stops: a chocolate bar at the back of the snack cupboard, new socks in the wardrobe, a cinema voucher between the books on the shelf.

Hiding places in this edition

• Tech: where the phone charger plugs in, under the game controller, behind the Wi-Fi router.
• Bedroom: inside the duvet, under the desk, the bedside table drawer, behind the curtains, inside their trainers, the back of the bedroom door.
• Kitchen: the snack cupboard, under the kitchen table, and three rhymes that name the fridge, the freezer and the dishwasher.
• Rest of the house: the laundry basket, the recycling bin lid, down the side of the sofa, the key hook by the front door, the bathroom mirror, the shower shelf.

Tips

Hide the cards the night before, or in the morning while they are still asleep. For a shorter hunt, pick ten or twelve cards, lay them out in the order you will use, and hide each one at the place the card before it points to. If their room is off limits, leave the bedroom cards out, or swap them for a clue of your own written on one of the four blank cards.

Two teenagers can hunt as a team if there are two prizes at the end. Let them take turns reading the card aloud.

Safety

An adult hides every card. For the fridge, freezer and dishwasher rhymes, tape the card to the outside of the door: never put a card inside an appliance, and never on anything that is hot or running. Put the router card behind the router without unplugging anything.