Christmas trail
The Great Christmas Candy Cane Quest
Santa’s Infinity Candy Canes were delivered to the wrong town. Twenty magical characters are holding on to them, and only your families can win them back.
- character stops
- 20
- screens of story & play
- 91
- to play at family pace
- 1–2 hrs
The story
What your families are walking into
Santa’s sleigh does not run on reindeer alone. It runs on Christmas cheer, stored in the Infinity Candy Canes — and this year an elf with a clipboard has shipped every last one of them to the wrong place. Yours.
The candy canes have scattered across your town, and twenty magical characters have picked them up: a snowman who is very pleased with how cool he is, a grumpy Christmas tree, carol-singing mice, the Yule Cat, Krampus, La Befana, Jack Frost and a gingerbread unicorn among them.
Every character will hand their candy cane over, but only to a family who finds the magic summoning words on their poster, says hello properly, and beats their challenge. Collect all twenty and Christmas is back on.
Warm, silly and squarely aimed at primary-age children and their grown-ups. Built for a school or PTA fundraiser and run that way twice.
For the organiser
What you actually have to do
- 1
Buy the trail
One fee covers your organisation for the season. You get the whole story, all the artwork and all the games, ready to place.
- 2
We set it up with you
There is no self-serve wizard for this trail yet, so this step happens together: tell us your town, your organisation and your dates, and we will write your place name through the script and place the twenty character stops on your own map with you. A self-serve wizard is coming.
- 3
Print and put up the signs
Magical Trails generates a printable poster for every stop, each carrying that character’s magic summoning words. Laminate them, cable-tie them to lamp posts and railings, and you are open.
- 4
Families scan and play
They open the trail on any phone, follow your map, and work through the characters in whatever order they like. You watch the progress come in.
What’s included
Everything in the box
20 character stops, plus an opening and a finale
22 stops in all. Each character gets an illustrated introduction, a challenge and a candy-cane reveal, wrapped in a story that opens at the North Pole and ends with the sleigh taking off.
28 riddles and questions
20 magic-summoning-word puzzles that only work if the family has actually reached the sign, and 8 Christmas quiz questions — Dickens, mistletoe, the Trafalgar Square tree, sprouts.
12 mini-games
Tap the falling snowflakes, baubles and presents; rebuild Mrs Claus, the reindeer, the gingerbread man, the Christmas robot and the Christmas monster from sliced-up pictures; and slide four picture puzzles back into shape.
20 candy-cane reveals
Every win ends in a starburst animation and a candy cane added to the family’s collection, so there is a visible score to chase all the way round.
Snow, all the way through
Falling snow, baubles and presents drift over the artwork on every screen. It looks like Christmas from the first tap.
Plays in the phone’s browser
Families scan a QR code and start. Nothing to download, no accounts, no app store, no waiting in the cold while an install finishes.
A look inside
The real artwork, from the real trail
The story opens at the North Pole. 
"Due to an administrative error…" 
Frosty McJolly, stop one. 
The Christmas Fairy. 
The Caroling Mice. 
Krampus, for the braver stops. 
One of four sliding-tile puzzles. 
The finale, once all 20 are found.
Before you buy
What you’ll need
One phone per family
Any smartphone from roughly the last six years, with a camera to scan the QR code and a data connection. No AR in this trail, so older handsets are fine.
Somewhere to put 20 signs
Front gardens, shop windows, park railings, school fences. Because the code words are printed on the posters, families have to physically reach each one — so the signs need to be visible from a pavement.
A printer and about an hour of laminating
A4 colour posters. Most organisers print at home or at the school office and laminate them against December weather.
One to two hours to set up
Roughly an hour with us to personalise the text and place the twenty stops on your map, then an afternoon walking round with a staple gun and a flask.
An adult with each group
It is a walking trail on real streets. Children play with a grown-up, and we say so on the opening screen.
Questions
The things organisers ask first
What ages is it for?
It was built for a primary school, so roughly 4–11 with a grown-up. Younger children love the characters and the tapping games; older ones take over the quiz questions and the sliding puzzles.
How long does a family take?
One to two hours for all twenty stops, depending on how far apart you place them and how long everyone stands about looking at the mice. Families can stop and come back later — progress is kept.
Do we have to use all twenty stops?
No. Place as many as your route can carry. A ten-stop version around one park works perfectly well, and the story still opens and closes properly.
Can we change the wording?
Your place name is filled in for you. Beyond that you can edit any screen after the wizard has built the trail, so local jokes and street names are easy to add.
What happens if it rains?
The trail sits on your map, not on a calendar, so families play whenever suits them across the window you set. Most organisers run theirs over a fortnight in December and let people pick a dry afternoon.
How many families can play at once?
There is no cap and no queue — everyone plays on their own phone, at their own pace, in whatever order they like. A hundred families on the same Saturday is no different to one.
Do we need to be there while people play?
No. Once the signs are up the trail runs itself. Organisers usually staff a start point on the busiest days to hand out maps and sell refreshments, but that is a fundraising choice, not a requirement.
Is it safe for children?
Families play together under adult supervision, and we say so on the opening screen. We do not create child accounts, ask for names, or collect personal details from players. Pick your stops the way you would plan any walk: pavements, daylight, and nothing that needs crossing a busy road.
Does it work with no signal?
Screens load as families reach each stop, so patchy 4G is fine but a true dead spot is not. If part of your route has no coverage, tell us when you set up and we will help you place the stops around it.
How accessible is it?
Text can be enlarged with the phone’s own settings, every screen works one-handed in portrait, and you choose the route — so you control step-free access, distance and gradient. Families can also skip a challenge and carry on rather than getting stuck.
Get it running
Run Candy Cane Quest this Christmas
Indicative price
Indicative only while we price-test with the first schools and PTAs. Get in touch and we will quote you properly — group and multi-site rates available.
- The full 22-stop story, artwork and games
- Your place name written through the script
- Printable QR posters for every stop
- Live progress for your organisers
- Email support through your run
This one is not yet self-serve in the wizard. Sign up and we will set it up with you for this season.