Sneak in a little holiday magic as you Grow a Christmas Tree in your kitchen! This fun christmas science experiment is fun and easy to try and only takes a few days to start seeing crystals growing on your festive tree. Use this christmas activity for kids in December with toddler, preschool, pre-k, kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade kids to sneak in some fun learning while still enjoying the seaons. Your kids will be impressed by this capillary action experiment that makes a really cool Christmas science project for kids.
Grow a Christmas Tree
Get ready for a christmas activities that will make your kids say WOW! Use this magic christmas tree as an advent activity, fun activity your elf on the shelf brings, or just a fun way to countdown to Christmas. It is really simple to grow a Christmas tree, plus it only takes 5-7 days to see dramatic results. I love that this activity combines Christmas Science with a Christmas craft for a truly unique and memorable activity for December. Children of all ages from toddlers, preschoolers, kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 students will enjoy this december activities for kids.
Christmas Science Experiments
You only need a few simple materials to try this Christmas science activity, you may even have these supplies laying around your house, we did.
- Cardboard box
- scissors
- shallow dish
- green food coloring (1-2 containers)
-
6 tablespoons or 90 ml water
-
6 tablespoons or 90 ml table salt (preferably uniodized)
-
6 tablespoons or 90 ml Mrs. Stewart’s liquid laundry bluing
-
1 tablespoon or 15 ml household ammonia
Christmas Science Activities
Basically you start by making your Christmas tree by carefully cutting with scissors two identical cardboard tree patterns. We do this by stacking them on top of each other to ensure they are exactly the same. Now cut a slit in the middle. Finally slide the pieces together like a puzzle to make a standing 3d tree. Place in a shallow dish.
Christmas Science
Paint or drop green food coloring on the tree so it is completely saturated and green.
Then, mix up the following solution and carefully pour in the base of the tree in the dish.
– 6 tablespoons or 90 ml water
– 6 tablespoons or 90 ml table salt (preferably uniodized)
– 6 tablespoons or 90 ml Mrs. Stewart’s liquid laundry bluing
– 1 tablespoon or 15 ml household ammonia
Christmas Activities for Kids
Depending on tempearture, humidity, and other factors you may start to see crystals as early as the next morning.It depends on a variety of factors as to when it is at it’s peak….but within a week you should have some lovely crystals that you used to grow a crystal tree.
Feel free to add additional green food coloring directly on the crystals as they form to help the color intensify.
If you are short on time, or patience – you can grow your own Christmas tree in less than 24 hours with this kit using a professional grade solution
Capillary Action Experiment
So, why does this work? Let me try to break it down for you. The solution you mixed up created a suspension. So although it looked all mixed, there were still solid particles were large enough for settling out on the tee limbs through a process called sedimintation.
Curious why the decimintation went up instead of making crystals at the base of your tree right in the liquid? The liquid suspension was drawn up the cardboard tree through a process called capillary action (try this simple capillary action experiment to understand better). This is the same effect that can be seen when a plant like a flower draws up colored water through its capillaries (try our flower capillary action experiment to make 2-toned flowers!). Now that the liquid has been drawn up, evaporation occurs where liquid molecules escape as gas molecules. And ammonia evaporates much quicker than water. HINT: That’s part of why we added it to the solution to speed up the evaporation process! Now that the liquid is evaporating the bluing and salt in the solution can no longer be supported so they are left begin and begin to crystalize.
Add some decorations and enjoy your Christmas tree project you made yourself! Remember the crystals are fragile so try not to jostle or bump your tree.
Christmas Science Experiments for Kids
Looking for more fun Christmas science ideas? Check these out!
- Fizzy Ornaments Christmas Science Experiments
- Spinning Christmas Tree Christmas Science Project
- Magic Melting Peppermint Candy Christmas Science Experiment
- Fizzy Gingerbread Man Christmas Science Experiment
- Lots of Christmas Science Experiments Kids will love!
- Beautiful Borax Crystal Christmas Tree Science Experiment
- Melting Christmas Tree Science Experiment for December
- Rudolph Christmas Science Experiments
- Christmas Magic Milk Experiment
- Gumdrops Ornaments Made with Christmas Science Experiment
- Gingerbread Puffy Paint Recipe
- Ornaments-Go-Round Christmas STEM Activities
- Christmas Fluffy Slime Recipe
- Easy Candy Cane Science Experiment
- Simple Oil and Water Christmas Science Experiment
- Frost in a Can Winter Science Experiment
- Snow Volcano Science Experiment
Christmas Printables
Looking for ideas for fun Christmas learning with free Christmas printables? Check out these fun resources:
- Fun Christmas Playdough Mats
- Alphabet Ornaments to trace and erase
- HUGE Pack of Christmas Worksheets for Preschool
- Christmas Science Experiments
- Stringing Lights Christmas Math Activities learning Patterns with playdough
- Free Christmas Tracing Sheets
- Find the Letter Free Christmas Worksheets
- Gingerbread Man Rhyme Puzzles
- Christmas Scavenger Hunt Online Free
- Cute Christmas Sight Word Worksheets
- Free Christmas Hundreds Chart Mystery Picture Worksheets
- Christmas Dot to Dot
- Christmas Alphabet Game
Christmas Activities for Kids
Looking for more fun Christmas printables, Christmas Crafts, and Christmas activities to fill your holiday calendar? Check out these fun ideas!
- Free Christmas Bingo Printable
- Printable Christmas Pictionary
- This Puffy Gingerbread Paint smells AMAZING!
- FUN Rudolph Race Game for kids with balloons
- Christmas Crafts for Kids book with over 100 Christmas Activities, Crafts, and Recipes for families to enjoy together during the month of December.
- Easy-to-Make Puffy Snow Paint
- Printable Hat Preschool Christmas Crafts
- Precious Snowman Handprint Ornament
- Beautiful Melted Crayon Ornaments
- Printable Christmas Names Cards with jokes
- How to Make Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments
- Simple Paper Strip Christmas Tree Ornament
- Epic Grinch Themed Party
- Puffy Gingerbread Ornament Recipe
- 100+ Christmas Crafts and Activities
- See all of our Christmas for kids crafts, activities, recipes, and printables here!
Free Christmas Worksheets
Looking for more huge Christmas Worksheets to make practicing math and literacy fun for kids? You will love these huge, free printable packs for December!
- Christmas Around the World Worksheets
- Super Cute FREE Christmas Worksheets
- Gingerbread Pirates Worksheets
- Gingerbread Man Worksheets
- Snowman Worksheet Pack
- Nativity Worksheets Printable Pack
- Nutcracker Worksheets for Kids
- Polar Express Telling the Time Worksheets
Science for Kids
Looking for lots more fun, science experiments for kids? You’ve GOT to try some of these outrageously fun science experiments for kids! We have so many fun, creative and easy science experiments for elementary age children:
- 100 Amazing Food science experiments for kids – arranged by type of science
- Colorful Capillary action science experiment (also known as walking water)
- Amaze kids with these 12 Hands on Science experiments with batteries
- 24 Epic Solar system science projects to try this week
- Fun Water balloon science experiment that explores density
- 50 Fun Preschool science experiments the whole family will want to try
- Simple Galaxy science project
- Easy and Fun Dancing Raisins Experiment
- Learn about weather as you find how to make a weather vane
- Eye opening Eye science experiments
- Easy-to- make Air pressure science project
- Amazing POP rocks science experiment is one of our all-time favorite science experiments we like to do during the summer are
- Stunning Chromatography Flowers are so pretty you’ll forget it was as science project!
- How to Make a Lava Lamp – super easy and SO cool!
- 30 Simple machines science projects kids will want to try
- Easy, fascinating, and colorful project answering Why do Leaves Change Color Experiment
- Free Printable Animal Classifications for Kids Cootie Catchers
- 19 Edible science experiments – which delicious project will you try first?
- HUGE Free Solar System Unit (coloring pages, hands on science projects, worksheets, and more!)
- Pipe Cleaner Constellation Activity (As seen on Good Housekeeping!)
- Teach kids about conductivity with this fun squishy circuits projects
- Amazing, Heat Sensitive, Color Changing Slime
- Life Cycles for Kids (from penguin to sunflower and spider to turkey we have LOTS of life cycles to explore and learn about)
- EASY, Colorful Oil and Water Science Experiment
- Kids will be amazed as you change colors of white flowers with this Dying Flowers Science Experiment
- This super cool Lego Zipline is fun and simple to make
- Human Body Project
- Check out this super cool look INSIDE a Volcano Project
- Exploding Watermelon – science experiment that explores potential and kinetic energy with a big WOW moment!
- Memorable Life Size Skeletal system science project – includes free printable template
- Find LOTS more Easy Science Experiments for kids of all ages!
