Christmas Science Made Simple!

December is coming around fast, and I’m confusing myself with all my Christmas science investigations, experiments, and STEM Challenges so I thought I’d pull everything together in one place to make it a bit easier.

Here you have the ULTIMATE list of Christmas science experiments for kids!

Christmas science - the ultimate list. Reindeer lava lamp, skittles candy cane, elf lab and sticky gingerbread houses.

The ULTIMATE List of Christmas Science Experiments for Kids

Christmas Science Advent Calendar

This free downloadable science advent calendar has an activity for each of the 12 days before Christmas. Just click on each bauble to be taken to that day’s activity!

Science Sparks Advent Calendar with an experiment for each day

Christmas Science Experiments

Print and play paper science experiments

My new favourite Christmas resource is this print-and-play pack of paper based festive activities! Race Christmas liquids, make spinning sleighs, magic opening holly and more. The idea behind this booklet is that you print the pack, complete the activities and then recycle everything, so there’s almost no waste!

pages taken from a booklet of paper science Christmas experiments

Flying Santa STEM Challenge

Use my handy template to set up a flying Santa STEM challenge. These work in the same way as a straw rocket, but with a flying Santa instead of a rocket!

Festive lava lamps

My Christmas lava lamps will always be one of my favourite festive science experiments. They can be used over and over again, and make a lovely, unusual Christmas decoration.

Christmas lava lamps made to look like a reindeer and a snowman

Christmas shadow puppets

Christmas shadow puppets are very easy to make and great fun for even very young children. Different size snowmen or a giant tree with decorations would be good for this one.

Frosty the snowman

Make frost appear on the outside of a can using the freezing power of ice and salt. This activity is fun for younger children as it’s visually appealing and a good investigation for older children to discover what happens to ice when mixed with salt.

A can with frost on the outside for a frosty science experiment

Find the North Star

Do you know how to find the North Star? Find out with this easy activity.

Christmas food chains

Discover how plants and animals get their energy with my Christmas food chains.

Christmas food chain - caribou moss - reindeer- people

Festive optical illusion

Optical illusions are fun at any time of year, but this festive version is my favourite. Use it to put decorations on a tree, a face on a snowman or anything else you can think of.

New for 2022 is a free optical illusion template to make the activity even easier.

Christmas themed optical illusions. Make baubles appear on a Christmas tree

LEGO maze

This festive LEGO maze will keep the kids busy for hours. For extra fun, set up a challenge to see who can build the best one, or try to make a multi-storey version.

Christmas Science in the Kitchen

Gingerbread house STEM challenge

Discover the best material for making a gingerbread house. Will it be icing sugar, glucose syrup or something else?

If you haven’t got time to make the gingerbread pieces, a square biscuit also works well.

Funny festive food combinations

Do you love turkey and cranberry sauce? Or cheese and pickles? Find out why some foods go together better than others with this funny food combination activity. Would you eat cranberry sauce and chocolate yule log at the same time?

Super strong candy canes

Hang Christmas decorations on candy canes to find out how strong they are. Just don’t use any decorations that might break if they fall.

Dissolve candy canes in different liquids. Vinegar and hot and cold water are good liquids to try first. For an edible experiment, place a candy cane in a warm and hot chocolate drink.

Apple cider and filtering

Make gorgeous apple cider to learn about filtering. This is a great fun Christmas cooking activity, and the apple cider tastes and smells amazing!

Melting marshmallows

Find out how long it takes a marshmallow to melt on your hot chocolate. One idea for this activity is to find out whether lots of small marshmallows melt faster than one or two large ones.

If you’ve got spare Christmas candy or fancy doing something fun with it, try one of my Christmas c andy experiments.

Christmas STEM Challenges

Try one of my Santa STEM Challenges. This activity also comes with a free printable sheet.

Build and test a raft for the reindeer!

Create a pulley in a box to help an elf lift his toys. This is a brilliant engineering challenge and can be done on a small or large scale, depending on the age and abilities of the children.

Elf Pulley for a Christmas STEM Challenge

Design and build Christmas themed boats and test them to see whether they sink or float and if they can carry Christmas items.

Elf Science Activities

New for 2022 is my 24 days of elf ideas. All the ideas are super simple and have a fun science twist. Make optical illusions ( using a handy template ), help Santa create new packaging for delicate toys, test how strong candy canes are and lots more fun elf antics for the whole of December!

image showing one page of elf ideas for advent

Try my 6 easy science activities the elf can bring! These need only very basic materials, and I’ve made FREE experiment instruction sheets you can download.

My fizzy elf lab is great fun for kids of all ages, too! I’ve also used this at a school Christmas fair.

Fizzy Elf Lab - image shows a little girl dressed as an elf with test tubes, baking soda and vinegar in front of her

I’ve also got some elf STEM challenges you can try, including building the elf a new shelf, saving a present with a parachute and making an elf zip line!

Make a new bell for the elf. What can you use to make it noisier?