Christmas Close Reading Mystery Inference Activity - Who Put Lights on the Trees

Engage your students with a high-interest close reading and inference mystery that challenges them to analyze text evidence, think critically, and pay attention to important details. In this Christmas activity, students must carefully read a variety of texts, compare accounts, and identify inconsistencies in order to determine who put up the holiday lights. This close reading activity moves beyond surface-level comprehension and pushes students to make inferences and justify their conclusions using specific evidence. Designed for collaboration and discussion, this Christmas activity improves inference skills, critical thinking, close reading, and problem-solving, and encourages students to support every claim with text evidence.

Reading mystery back story: It’s early December, and the residents of the small town of Radiance congregate in a park to drink hot chocolate, build snowmen, and walk the waterfront trail. As day turns to evening, a beautiful display of colorful holiday lights mysteriously illuminates in the trees. Your students need to determine who put up the holiday lights!

This Christmas activity is included in our best-selling program:
→ Reading Mysteries Program

 
Included In This Christmas Activity Close Reading Inference Mystery:

➡️ Inference Mystery Presentation Slides: This 15-slide PowerPoint presentation guides the entire Christmas activity from beginning to end. It introduces the backstory, presents the evidence, and walks students through the final reveal. The slides help structure the inference mystery and provide clear explanations outlining why each suspect is innocent or guilty. The built-in answers make whole-class review simple and easy.

➡️ Classroom Poster: Use this eye-catching poster to immediately hook students as they enter the room. Posting it on your classroom door or board builds curiosity and sets the tone for the Christmas activity before the lesson even begins.

➡️ Original Narrative Backstory: This short narrative sets the scene when the lights appear in the trees. Students learn about the town gathering, who was nearby, and the unusual details surrounding the display. The story establishes the timeline, introduces potential suspects, and provides essential background information students will reference throughout the investigation. Hidden clues and subtle hints are embedded within the narrative, requiring careful close reading and attention to detail.

➡️ A Variety of Clues and Evidence: Students examine a variety of evidence presented in realistic formats, requiring them to read carefully, compare details across sources, and piece together information to build a strong, evidence-based conclusion. The evidence includes a job application, a mayoral campaign poster, a letter from the local fire chief, a text message, a mayoral campaign budget, a power outage list, a blog post, a rock-climbing instruction poster, and a fire station community event poster. Each piece contains relevant details that may support or refute a suspect’s involvement. Students must use close reading and draw logical inferences based on what the texts reveal.

➡️ Text Evidence Graphic Organizer: This graphic organizer helps students track clues, record important details, and organize their reasoning during the inference mystery activity. Students list information they learn about the suspects, cite specific evidence, and explain how each clue supports or contradicts their theory. The organizer ensures conclusions are grounded in close reading and text evidence.

➡️ Teacher Answer Key: A detailed answer key is included in both printable format and embedded within the presentation slides. This allows for a dramatic whole-class reveal at the end of the Christmas activity.

How The Christmas Activity Close Reading Inference Mystery Works:

• Start the Christmas activity inference mystery by displaying the poster on your door to build anticipation. As students enter, place them into small groups so they can collaborate and begin working together to solve the mystery.
  
  
• Use the presentation slides to guide you through the introduction of the close reading inference mystery. The slides help you set up the backstory before they begin analyzing the evidence.
  
  
• Distribute the evidence to each group, giving students time to read carefully, analyze the details, make inferences, and locate specific text evidence that supports or refutes each suspect. Encourage discussion within groups as they compare ideas and build their case.
  
  
• Once each group has made a final prediction, use the presentation slides to reveal the culprit. Review each suspect one by one, walking through the evidence that proves their innocence or guilt so students can clearly see how strong text evidence leads to a logical conclusion.

What Teachers Are Saying About This Christmas Activity Close Reading Inference Mystery:

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ These mystery units are so engaging for my students! I love that they work together to try and solve the mysteries. There is higher-level thinking and cooperation going on throughout this activity.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ SO MUCH FUN! My students' favorite days are when we are completing a Presto Plans mystery activity. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This is the perfect resource to use in the holiday season. Students have to use so many reading strategies that we talk about in class, but they are so engaged in the mystery that they do not grumble about it. It is so helpful to have this on hand to help fill that class time when you do not want to start a new unit.

If you like this Christmas activity, you'll love this resource:
→ Who Kidnapped Dasher?

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