Room Escape Artist

Christmas and chill

Location: Holmdel, NJ

Date Played: November 9, 2025

Team Size: 2-8; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $39 per player

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: None that we are aware of

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Whether it’s December or July, Frozen In Time: The Race To Save Christmas! will leave you glowing with holiday cheer.

It was a small gamespace, but the cozy, thematic decor looked great and the Christmas vibes were on point. However, PuzzleConnect missed the opportunity to do more with the “frozen” premise and make that a central part of the decor and the mission. The frozen-over conceit was cute, but it wasn’t meaningfully incorporated into the experience.

That said, Frozen In Time: The Race To Save Christmas! didn’t need further mission justification to be fun. With its tactile puzzles and varied interactions, this adorable Christmas-themed escape room would be perfect for families. And more experienced escape room players will still find a lot to enjoy, including some satisfying aha moments of puzzle solving. If you’re in New Jersey, seeking holiday cheer in the form of an escape room, look no further.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Christmas aficionados
• Any experience level
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• Lots of puzzle variety
• Tangible props and satisfying tactile interactions
• Family-friendly holiday cheer

Story

It was December 24th and as Santa’s elves, we’d shown up to work a little early to find the shop completely frozen over. We could be heroes by getting the toy factory back in working order before Santa and the other elves would arrive to get ready for Christmas.

Setting

We entered a cozy wall-papered office with dark wood furnishings and Christmas decor. There was just a hint of snow and ice inside this office space.

Gameplay

PuzzleConnect’s Frozen In Time: The Race To Save Christmas! was a standard, family-friendly escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, making connections, and solving puzzles.

Analysis

➕ /➖ The frozen workshop provided an adorable, thematic reason to our mission. There was an opportunity to lean into the premise harder, especially in the decor.

➕ We enjoyed the varied puzzles in the space and the non-linear gameplay, meaning we could each largely gravitate to the puzzles we liked best. The puzzles required dexterity, pattern matching, and reasoning, among other skills. They all solved cleanly.

➖ The gameplay would flow better with some changes in sound design. Auditory feedback for solves always came from a single source, not necessarily near the prop we were working with, leading to confusion over what had been solved, especially when teammates solves multiple puzzles at the same time. Similarly, one puzzle had unusual buttons that made noise when pressed, but we didn’t realize at first that they were buttons, and didn’t associate the depressing sound, which came from elsewhere in the space, with our actions. There was also opportunity to create a more realistic fireplace sound, perhaps with a longer loop.

➕ PuzzleConnect used quality materials. Magnets were strong. The 3D printed materials looked good. PuzzleConnect put the extra effort into post-production to make 3D printed props feel at home in this Christmas workshop.

➖ We would have loved a boss battle that brought the whole team together at the end of this experience. While the culminating prop was adorable, the interaction could have been more engaging for the full team.

Tips For Visiting

• There is a parking lot.
• There are ample food options nearby within Bell Works.
• This game originally came from Giant Dream Productions, but PuzzleConnect made a lot of their own modifications, especially in puzzle design.

Book your hour with PuzzleConnect’s Frozen In Time: The Race To Save Christmas!, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: PuzzleConnect comped our tickets for this game.