Made in Frankfort · Oct. 23, 2026

A Frankfort dad turned his family’s Christmas hunt into an app

When Josh Jacobs was a kid in Arizona in the 1980s, he and his brother Jeremy snuck under the tree one Christmas morning and sorted the presents by name tag. After that, he told The State Journal, Santa stopped using name tags. A couple of years later, Santa made them hunt for their last gift with handwritten, rhyming clues.

Last Christmas, Josh, who runs a Frankfort web design business, and his wife, Melissa, wanted something special for their five kids, the last year before all of them were adults. So the gifts went out with no names on them. Each kid had to solve three holiday puzzles on a countdown website Josh built to unlock a riddle, then find a hidden box with a QR code to figure out which wrapping paper was theirs.

“It was chaos. It was hilarious. And it was exactly the kind of Christmas memory we had hoped to create.” — Josh Jacobs, to The State Journal

Family members talked him into sharing it, and it’s now live as Christmas Unlocked. Each child gets a wrapping paper of their own, then clues from Santa for up to two weeks before Christmas and one last puzzle on Christmas morning. Kids can also chat with Santa and play games in “Santa’s arcade.” It runs in any web browser, on phones, tablets or computers. The site says it’s best for ages 7 and up and recommends one device for parents and one for kids.

It isn’t free. The site lists an early price of $49 for up to three kids ($10 for each extra child) before Nov. 1, and $99 after that. Check the site for current details.

Sources: The State Journal, Oct. 20 · christmasunlocked.com