Driving Anxiety Advent Calendar 2025
Welcome to the 1stDrive Advent Calendar for 2025: Driving Anxiety Is Murder!
My advent calendar offers a fun and free murder mystery game to enjoy in the run-up to Christmas, where you play the role of a detective discovering whodunit.
Can you solve the clues and catch the killer in time for Christmas?
You can read how to play by scrolling down this page. I recommend turning small screens sideways to make the calendar look better.
Detective’s notebook
The victim in this story is Mr Drive, the world-famous multi-millionaire driving anxiety therapist.
He had invited eight people to his country mansion to unveil an amazing discovery: a way of fixing driving anxiety in minutes without therapy. Moments before giving his presentation, he was found dead at the foot of the grand staircase.
One of the suspects below is the killer!
Once you have eliminated a suspect from your enquiries, cross out their name in the list below by clicking on it. You can uncross it by clicking on it again. Your notes save automatically.
The suspects are, in no particular order:
- Ms Terry
- Dr Ivor
- Mr Turn
- Ms Take
- Mrs Mirrors
- Mr Signal
- Professor Parker
- Ms Near
The last person remaining on your list is the killer!
You can learn more about the suspects below.
He’s making a list,
And checking it twice,
Gonna find out who took someone’s life,
Santa Clues is coming to town!
New Year’s Eve mystery
The mystery isn’t over yet – now you must find the killer’s accomplice!
As before, open the windows from 6 a.m. UK time each day and eliminate the suspects until only the accomplice remains.
I did write a second suspect list for this, but it wouldn’t work properly. You can either make your own or cross the names off the original suspect list for the murderer and reuse that.
The clues are harder to solve this time, and you may need to do some research…
How to play my Advent calendar
Open the windows on the calendar each day in December.
Click window 1 on December 1st, window 2 on December 2nd, etc. You’ll notice something special happens when you click a window. 🌨️❄️ Keep clicking a window to increase the effect.
The windows unlock at 6 a.m. UK time each day. Once opened, a window remains open for the following days.
Behind each window is a clue which helps you work out who committed the crime.
There are two types of clues:
Normal clues in blue relate to suspects and will be something like “Mr Brown can’t drive”. Not all of the clues are needed, but none of them lies or mislead you.
Killer clues in red relate to the killer, always start with “The killer” (so colourblind people can tell the clues apart) and will be something like “The killer loves driving”.
How to use the clues
Some clues match up in pairs as shown in the example above.
If Mr Brown can’t drive, and the killer loves driving, then Mr Brown can’t be the killer.
Once you have ruled out a suspect, cross out their name in your detective notebook underneath the Advent calendar to eliminate them from your investigation.
Some clues have no pair, but may help you later. 😉
You might need to look up words you’re not familiar with for some of the clues.
Some clues contain extra information which can lead you to hidden, secret codewords. I advise you to think literally rather than laterally to solve these. Can you find all of the codewords? Keep a note of the codewords; you never know when you might need them…
If you’re busy over Christmas 2025, this page is linked on my Driving Puzzle Games page and will be playable until October in the year 2100.
The suspects
Here is more information about the suspects.
Ms Terry – A sufferer of driving anxiety who claims a hypnotherapist made her believe she’s a kangaroo. She’s hopping mad, but is she out for revenge?
Dr Ivor – A road safety activist, who’s pushing for speed limits to be abolished. His campaign, There’s no limit, featuring the hit ’90s tune, started a social media dance craze.
Mr Turn – An old school driving instructor who insists that on-road driving courses are the best way of fixing driving anxiety. Has his patience reached the end of the road?
Ms Take – A believer in exposure therapy who claims it’s the best way to overcome driving anxiety. She has many success stories, but are they fake, as rumours suggest?
Mrs Mirrors – Eccentric campaigner for 5mph speed limits on all roads worldwide. Does she really believe this, or is she just unable to accept that she has a fear of driving at speed?
Mr Signal – A psychologist who demands logic and reason be recognised as the best ways to fix driving anxiety. Did discovering he was wrong prove more than he could take?
Professor Parker – Creator of viral driving test video “Clutch Then Gas – The best Way To Pass“. Despite his smooth onscreen persona, has his thirst for fame fueled a motive for murder?
Ms Near – An advocate of CBT who insists it’s the best way to fix driving anxiety. Exhausted from constantly explaining that she doesn’t offer THAT kind of CBT, is she fuming enough to kill?
‘Twas The Night Before Christmas…
Something will happen on this page on Christmas Eve 2025 at 9 a.m. UK time.
As well as window 24 being openable, something will appear below the calendar.
Come back on Christmas Eve at 9 a.m. UK time when all will be revealed…🎅
What was the surprise?
On December 24th 2025, I posted an email address where you could contact me with your answer, and the New Year’s Eve mystery was released!
If you didn’t follow along with this calendar as it unfolded in December 2025, look out for more Advent calendars from me in the years to come.
Calendars of Christmas Past
My 2013 Advent calendar started it all.
I released a new video each day on my YouTube Channel from December 1 to 24.
I did the same in 2014 (I deleted most of those videos years ago) and 2015.
You can still see most of my Christmas specials by visiting the 1stDrive YouTube channel. Click on the videos tab, and you can scroll back through the years to see which videos came out around Christmas.
Seeing as this year’s calendar is called Driving Anxiety is Murder!, you might like to learn more about driving anxiety at How to Overcome Driving Anxiety.
Make your own Advent calendar
Add a calendar to your WordPress site with Super Advent Calendar.
Their support is awesome, and they helped me resolve issues within minutes.
Thanks also go to the brilliant WordPress community, who wrote the code for the Detective Notebook feature, allowing you to cross out suspects’ names. Thanks in part to this calendar, that “to-do list” feature may be added to WordPress in the form of a Gutenberg block!
Final words on my Advent calendar
If this is popular, it may come back in future years. Please leave your feedback in the comments section of the video below.
I’d wanted to do it in previous years, as some of you may remember, but I couldn’t find any software capable of doing what I wanted.
I’ve enjoyed solving puzzles since I was a kid. It began when I was playing a video game one day involving a murder mystery. I remember running around the house because I was so excited!
I have dozens of books on murders, whodunnits and crime. This is a great way for me to use what I’ve learnt and maybe pass this love on to others.
There’s something about the unknown that intrigues people. I think it’s because we live in a world where you can just pick up a phone to find the answer to anything. How nice it is when, just for once, you can’t do that and are made to use your brain to think the answer through for yourself.
I hope you enjoy this Advent calendar mystery and have a Happy Christmas and New Year.
If you enjoy this calendar, visit my page Driving Puzzle Games to test your wits against my fiendish riddles.
Here’s the video I made announcing this Advent calendar.
Solution
This video reveals the killer, the accomplice, and several Easter eggs.