Christmas TV mysteries

I love mysteries, I love Christmas stories, and I love it when they get smooshed together. For 12 days of cool Christmas TV mysteries, check out these enigmatic episodes …

The Twilight Zone – “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” (S3E14-1961) 
No detectives, no cops, no crimes, and barely any holiday content until its bizarre final twist – but this surreal gem is indeed a mystery, albeit one about five random people trapped in a cylindrical limbo realm. 

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – “The Blue Carbuncle” (S1E7-1984)
A lost Christmas goose and an infamous stolen jewel lead Holmes and Watson (Jeremy Brett & David Burke during Brett’s classic 1984-1994 run as Holmes) into a tangled mystery to save a wrongly accused man. 

Poirot – “The Theft of the Royal Ruby” (S3E9-1991) 
Agatha Christie’s Belgian sleuth Poirot (during David Suchet’s definitive 1989-2013 run as the character) reluctantly spends his holidays helping an arrogant Egyptian prince recover a pilfered gem. 

Poirot – “Hercule Poirot’s Christmas” (S6E1-1994) 
Diabolical diamond tycoon Simeon Lee hires elite detective Poirot to attend a fractious Christmas gathering of the Lee family, whose toxic quarrels lead to a locked-room murder mystery. 

Batman: The Animated Series – “A Bullet for Bullock” (S4E4-1995)
When obnoxious police detective Harvey Bullock is targeted for death during the holidays, his vigilante frenemy Batman must determine which of Bullock’s many enemies is the culprit. 

A Nero Wolfe Mystery – “Wolfe Goes Out” (S1E6&7-2001)
Aired in Canada as two wintry episodes (“Door to Death” & “Christmas Party”), armchair detective Nero Wolfe leaves his comfortable office on a snowy countryside quest for an orchid expert, then solves a murder at a holiday soiree attended by his rakish right hand man Archie Goodwin. 

Veronica Mars – “An Echolls Family Christmas” (S1E10-2004)
The titular teenage gumshoe spends her holiday season solving a robbery case tied to a high stakes poker game at the Echolls mansion while her father Keith unwraps some sordid Echolls family secrets in this witty, cynical Christmas noir. 

Monk – “Mr. Monk Meets His Dad” (S5E9-2006)
Brilliant but troubled detective Adrian Monk spends the holidays on a reluctant road trip with his long-lost, long-estranged father, trucker Jack Monk, who is unwittingly entangled in a murder. 

Psych – “The Polarizing Express” (S5E14-2010)
When a case goes wrong, fake psychic and gifted detective Shawn Spencer has “It’s a Wonderful Life “-style dream visions of how life might be for his friends, family and colleagues without him.   

Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! – “Scary Christmas” (S1E14-2015)
Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! isn’t the best version of Scooby—that would be the late, great Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated—but it does have Scooby’s oddest, funniest Christmas tale, in which Fred’s obsession with solving the perfect Christmassy mystery is complicated by a rogue Pterodactyl. 

The Twilight Zone – “A Traveler” (S1E4-2019) 
A Christmas party at an Alaskan police station gets weird when an extra prisoner (played with creepy charm by Steven Yeun) turns up in their jail; but can Sgt. Yuka Mongoyak discover what this mystery man really wants before it’s too late?

Elsbeth – “Gold, Frankincense, and Murder” (S2E6-2024) 
When the secretly rocky marriage of a couple of “celebrity Christmas curators” ends in sudden death, the authorities investigate—including Elsbeth Tascioni, the quirky lawyer from The Good Wife and The Good Fight, reinvented in this delightful spinoff as a Columbo-style crime solver. 

Hawkeye (S1-2021) 
For a 13th day of Christmas mystery, circle back to the MCU’s seasonal sleeper hit Hawkeye. Yes, it’s a superhero action dramedy; but it also has mystery elements (including a murder to solve) and is loads of heartwarming fun regardless as Marvel’s ace archer fights to get home for the holidays.