If you’ve ever been tempted to open your presents before you were supposed to, The Heist Before Christmas might be your chance.

The pop-up variation on room escape games is running at the Meteor Theatre in December. Rather than one hour to escape a room the team of players has one hour to break into their presents before getting caught.

‘The puzzle solving and racing against the clock is the fun part of escape games.’ explains designer Ross MacLeod,

‘I wanted to create an experience with a Christmas theme and that meant changing the goals a little.’

MacLeod ran his first pop-up room escape season in last year’s Fringe Festival. ‘Short seasons of pop-up games keep things fresh for players.’ It also means MacLeod keeps busy coming up with new themes and puzzles. Creating puzzles, planning sequences, building the props and set decorating is all part of the process.

The Heist before Christmas runs at The Meteor Theatre from December 1-20 with multiple sessions across each day. Bookings can be made at themeteor.co.nz