A Christmas Dream

Advent, Advent, a little light burns. First one, then two, then three, then four, then the Christ Child stands at the door. And once the fifth light starts to gleam, you’ve slept right through — so much for the dream.

It’s the night before Christmas Eve. Looking for a bed for the night, you end up at the Inn of Dreams. You’ve barely closed your eyes before you find yourself in the loveliest Christmas dream. There are still a few things to get done, but that shouldn’t be a problem — none of the candles on the Advent wreath are lit yet, after all.

Hold on, though. Why does your Advent wreath have five candles? And why is time passing so much faster in here? After two minutes the first candle is already burning, and every two minutes another one flickers to life. Have the elves been at work?

Sure enough: after ten minutes the fifth candle is lit. And just like that, you’ve slept through Christmas and wake up in the bedroom with a start. Luckily, sleep comes quickly at this inn — and you land, yes, right back in the very same dream.

Will you manage it this time and finish every last Christmas preparation before the fifth candle burns? What looks straightforward at first glance becomes a real challenge, thanks to the elves. Who’s going to come out on top?

What to expect

A one-of-a-kind loop concept: a game mechanic that adjusts the difficulty as you play.
Elvish mischief: the little creatures cause plenty of chaos in the dream — take on the challenge and enjoy the joke.
Memory tactics: what you learn in earlier dreams is your key to getting through the tasks faster with every loop.
A look behind the scenes: after the game we take a look behind the walls together. Thanks to the room-within-a-room construction, you’ll see the mechanics and the magic from an angle almost nobody ever gets to see.
For Christmas lovers and Christmas grouches alike: a fast, funny experience for any team.

How it all started

Our journey began in a business incubator — the ideal place for ideas that need room to grow. When a neighboring company moved out in 2019 and a large basement space became available, we faced a decision: take the next step and keep growing? Or risk the space being let to someone else for years?

We didn’t have a finished room plan yet, just vague visions of a magic concept. So we did what founders do: signed the lease and threw ourselves into it. At first we hosted a friend and his large printers, and used the laser cutter to build a miniature magic world as a model. And then Covid arrived and brought everything to a halt.

Sitting still wasn’t an option, though. We used the space for some thoroughly bizarre interim projects: together with a filmmaker friend we built a four-meter shark model and a small film set, where he shot several scenes for his movie.

The real turning point came during a meeting with a fellow escape room operator. She gave us the idea of putting on a temporary Christmas pop-up. We were sold immediately. During the family brainstorm that followed, someone suddenly said the line that decided everything: “and once the fifth light starts to gleam, you’ve slept right through Christmas!” We looked at each other — two fools, one thought: that’s the perfect basis for a loop concept.

The story came together in no time. Since it was only ever meant to be a temporary pop-up, the budget was small, so we opted for a room-within-a-room build. In hindsight that turned out to be a stroke of luck: you can walk all the way around the inner room, which opened up game design possibilities a conventionally built room could never offer.

After just a few weeks of operation it was clear: this room is never going away. Our single most expensive investment, incidentally, was the scent system — and simultaneously the best decision we ever made. There’s barely a group whose first words on entering aren’t: “Wow, it really does smell like Christmas in here!”