The 17th Door Celebrates the Absurd Side of Christmas

Since 2015, Orange County’s The 17th Door has staked its claim as one of the most controversial, boundary-pushing, and intense haunted attractions. Combining a flair for the dramatic with some of the most demanding physical challenges in the haunt world, The 17th Door provides an experience unmatched by many of its contemporaries. But that’s all during Halloween time. Under the clouds of a few chilly December nights, the Haunted Holiday Treasure Hunt of Absurdity is a welcome change of pace, making guests laugh and cheer even as they cringe and scream.

After a successful third outing this past October, The 17th Door has followed the lead of many others by throwing open their doors for a special holiday overlay, in the guise of this twisted scavenger hunt. Paula, the haunt’s “star,” has a brand new cell mate in jolly old St. Nick, and groups of would-be prisoners are helping the pair break out. Along the way, these groups are given long holiday socks (recycled from past groups, naturally) and tasked with navigating the tinsel-strewn hallways of Perpetuum Penitentiary, completing various challenges in exchange for small gifts, which could then themselves be bartered for a chance to wind up on Kris Kringle’s “Nice List.”

The revelry and the goings-on at the 17th Door are fantastically punctuated by the make-up designs of Haylee Detroit, Krystal Geannie, and many other fantastic make-up artists. From gorily slit throats to the darkened, deadened eyes of Perpetuum’s inmates, it’s easy to get distracted by the detailed horror of each and every character. The splashes of red blood and green glitter make the carnage all the more festive.

Rather than inspiring the dread that it normally does, the Treasure Hunt of Absurdity puts all of the emphasis on that last word, crafting a truly bizarre hour that revels in lighthearted shenanigans. The narrative impetus for this yuletide mayhem is flimsy, of course, but to get bogged down in the details is to miss the point entirely. Much like Sinister Pointe’s Christmas haunts of days past (especially 2015’s Hunt for Krampus), the objective is to spread cheer amongst teammates, as gross as that cheer may be.

Luckily for some, the gross-out factor here is fairly tame by 17th Door standards. Texture-haters may recoil at the greasy vaseline being smeared about by amorous cellmates, while a questionable highlight of the haunt is confronting a very real, very odorous fish caught by a Rankin/Bass-style Abominable Snowman, but apart from those, stomachs go largely untested.

It’s not often that the denizens of Perpetuum are all smiles, but such is the magic of the holidays, even in a terrifying nightmare prison. From crawling through ice tunnels to a quite “shocking” Christmas Carol, the 17th Door’s Haunted Holiday Treasure Hunt of Absurdity is a pure, adrenaline-fueled winter wonderland of terror. If 2018 sees the return of the hunt, it’s an experience that’s undoubtedly worth a try. If not, a lucky few have walked away with a merry batch of intense, disgusting, yet ultimately delightful memories.