How to Incorporate STEM Learning into Your Family’s Christmas Traditions

The holiday season is a magical time for family bonding, and what better way to enhance the festivities than by incorporating fun and educational STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities into your Christmas traditions? Combining the spirit of the season with hands-on learning can spark curiosity, creativity, and problem-solving skills in your children—all while creating memories that will last a lifetime. Here’s how to blend STEM learning into your family’s Christmas traditions.

Build a STEM-Inspired Gingerbread House

Transform the classic holiday activity of making a gingerbread house into an engineering challenge!

STEM Focus: Teach kids about architecture, structural stability, and creative design.

Activity: Use graham crackers, icing, and candy to build a sturdy house. Test how much weight it can hold by adding “snow” (powdered sugar) or “Christmas lights” (candy pieces).

Learning Tip: Discuss why some designs are stronger than others and how engineers solve similar problems.

Conduct a Christmas Light Circuit Experiment

Turn your holiday decorations into a lesson on electricity.

STEM Focus: Introduce the basics of circuits and how electricity powers lights.

Activity: Use a simple circuit kit to light up a mini-Christmas tree or wreath. Teach kids how to connect batteries, wires, and bulbs.

Learning Tip: Explain how series and parallel circuits work using your Christmas tree lights as an example.

Explore the Science of Snow

If you’re in a snowy climate—or even if you’re not—you can turn snow into a science experiment.

STEM Focus: Discuss states of matter, temperature, and the water cycle.

Activity: Collect snow (or make artificial snow) and explore how it melts, evaporates, or refreezes. Measure its volume before and after melting to observe changes.

Learning Tip: Ask questions like, “Why does salt make snow melt faster?”

Bake Cookies with a Math Twist

Baking is a delicious way to incorporate math and chemistry into your holiday traditions.

STEM Focus: Practice fractions, measurements, and chemical reactions.

Activity: Let kids measure ingredients and double or halve a recipe. Explain how heat causes cookies to rise and change texture.

Learning Tip: Use cookie cutters to discuss geometry and symmetry.

Build a Popsicle Stick Christmas Tree

Turn crafting into an engineering challenge.

STEM Focus: Teach concepts of balance and geometry.

Activity: Build a Christmas tree using popsicle sticks and glue. Challenge kids to make the tallest or most stable tree.

Learning Tip: Discuss how triangles are a strong shape in engineering.

Design a Christmas Catapult

Challenge your kids to launch marshmallows or pom-poms into holiday cups.

STEM Focus: Introduce principles of physics and engineering.

Activity: Build a simple catapult using popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and a plastic spoon. Test different designs to see which launches the farthest.

Learning Tip: Encourage kids to adjust variables like angle and force to improve their results.