--- title: "Christmas science experiments and crafts for kids" description: "Christmas science for kids: salt-painted snowflakes, a frozen winter picture with ice ferns, and spiced biscuits from the oven. On screen and for real." source_name: "Game Tailors" source_url: "https://extreemtekenen.nl/en/seasons/christmas/" site_home: "https://extreemtekenen.nl/" source_description: "The drawing app where the paper is real. No ads, no accounts, no data collected." locale: "en" legal: - "Game Tailors · Schieweg 15Y-40, 2627 AN Delft (NL)" - "KvK 92437702 · VAT NL866044474B01" - "info@gametailors.com · +31 6 4227 5919" copyright: "© 2026 Game Tailors" published_at: "2026-10-24T00:47:56.612Z" modified_at: "2026-10-24T05:05:35.499Z" --- # Christmas science experiments and crafts for kids ## Snowflakes from salt, frost from the freezer Three Christmas activities that are real science: a snowflake drawn in glue and salt that sucks up colour along its arms, a winter picture frozen until ice ferns grow in the paint, and a sweet dough baked until its crust turns golden brown. [Play in your browser]()[Do it for real](<#for-real>) - Ages 4\+ - 30–45 minutes - With an adult for the oven ![Painted illustration of the painter sprinkling salt on a big blue and purple snowflake painting, beside a frosted snowman drawing, gingerbread stars and hearts and a Christmas tree.]() Age 4 to 10 Time 30 min \(snowflakes\), 1 hour \(biscuits\) Mess Medium: glue, salt, flour Adult needed For the oven and the knife You need Kitchen cupboard things On screen / for real Both ## In Extreme Drawing **A salt snowflake.** In Craft, pick *Glue* and draw a snowflake: six lines crossing, with little branches. In the Kitchen, shake *Salt* from the sieve over it; it sticks to the wet glue as a sparkly white line. Now touch the salt with a loaded watercolour brush, ink drops or food colouring and watch the colour race along the arms. **A frozen winter picture.** Paint a snowman or a winter sky with wet watercolour, then tap *Put in the freezer* on the Time tab. Everything wet freezes, the sheet comes out frosted, and feathery ice ferns grow in the paint and stay after it thaws. Press the hand into the frost to leave a handprint, or shake salt on it and it melts a little pit round each grain. **Something from the oven.** There's no ginger in the app's kitchen, but there's flour, butter, honey, icing sugar and cinnamon. Shake a heap of flour, add drops of water and knead it with the hand into dough. Squeeze in some honey or sift on icing sugar, roll it flat with the rolling pin, then tap *Bake in the oven*: the crust bakes golden brown. Dust it with cinnamon or icing sugar afterwards. Use the *Star* and *Tree* stencils from the drawing kit for decorations. Santa's beard face plant is in the Toy box \(in the full toolbox\). [Play in your browser]() ![Painted illustration of the painter dripping blue, pink and yellow paint onto a salt-covered glue star and flower on dark card, the colour spreading along the salt.]() ## Salt-painted snowflakes **You need:** - dark card \(blue, purple or black\) - white PVA glue in a squeeze bottle - table salt or fine sea salt - watercolour paints or food colouring in a little water - a pipette or a soft brush - a tray to catch the salt 1. Draw the snowflake in glueSix arms from the middle, then little branches. Thick lines work best. 2. Pour on the saltCover the glue completely while it's wet. Be generous. 3. Tip off the extraTilt the card over the tray and tap it gently. The salt stays only on the glue. 4. Touch on the colourHold a drop of watery colour against a salty line. Don't paint, just touch. The colour runs along the salt by itself. 5. Try two coloursAdd blue at one end and purple at the other, and see where they meet. 6. Let it dry flatLeave it lying flat overnight. The salt stays crunchy and sparkly. Safety and clean-up Keep salt away from eyes and cuts. Food colouring stains: use a tray and old clothes. Shake the tray's salt into the bin, not the sink, if it's mixed with glue. ## Spiced Christmas biscuits **You need \(about 20 biscuits\):** - 350 g plain flour - 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda \(baking soda\) - 2 teaspoons ground ginger and 1 of cinnamon - 125 g butter - 175 g light brown sugar - 1 egg - 4 tablespoons golden syrup or honey - cookie cutters, a rolling pin, baking paper An adult heats the oven to 180 °C \(160 °C fan\) and does everything with the oven. 1. Rub in the butterMix flour, soda and spices, then rub in the butter with your fingertips until it looks like breadcrumbs. 2. Make a doughStir in the sugar, then the beaten egg and the syrup. Squeeze it together into a ball. 3. Roll and cutRoll it out about half a centimetre thick and cut out stars, trees and people. 4. Bake \(adult\)12 to 15 minutes, until golden brown. The adult takes the tray out. 5. Cool, then decorateLet them cool on the tray for ten minutes before you touch them. ### Hot oven Only an adult opens the oven and handles the hot tray. Raw dough contains raw egg and flour: don't eat it before it's baked. Check for allergies \(egg, wheat, dairy\). ![Painted illustration of two sheets of paper, one covered in frost ferns from the freezer and one baked golden from the oven, the painter holding an ice cube and an oven glove.]() ## Why it works **For kids:** Salt drinks up water, so the colour gets pulled along the salt like a straw. Heat turns the outside of dough brown and crunchy, and that can't be undone. **For grown-ups:** Salt is hygroscopic and the grains form a porous path, so capillary action wicks the coloured water along the glue line. Freezing is a reversible change: the ice melts back to water, though the crystals that grew in wet watercolour push pigment aside and leave their pattern behind. Baking is irreversible: sugars caramelise and the Maillard reaction browns the crust, while bicarbonate of soda gives off carbon dioxide in the heat and puffs the biscuits up a little. Salt on ice lowers the freezing point, which is why it melts pits in frost. ## Try next ### Coarse or fine? Does the colour travel further along coarse salt or fine salt? ### Freeze it twice In the app, paint over a frozen-and-thawed picture and freeze it again. Do new ferns grow? ### Can you un-bake it? Freeze a baked biscuit. Does it go back to dough? Why not? ## For teachers Freezing versus baking fits reversible and irreversible changes \(NGSS 2-PS1-4; KS2 Year 5 "properties and changes of materials"\). Show both on the whiteboard, ask the class to predict, then do the salt snowflakes at the tables. [Reversible changes lesson]() Why does my salt painting not soak up the colour? The salt layer is too thin, or the colour is too thick. Use plenty of salt and very watery paint, and just touch the drop to the salt. Can I do salt painting without glue? Yes: sprinkle salt onto a wet watercolour painting. Each grain draws in water and leaves a pale starburst, like snow. What's an easy Christmas science experiment for preschoolers? Freezing: put a few toys in a tub of water overnight, then melt them out with warm water and salt. Or salt painting a snowflake. Is there gingerbread in the app? No ginger, but you can make a sweet dough with flour, water, honey or icing sugar and bake it golden in the app's oven. ## More to try ![Painted illustration of the painter dripping blue, pink and yellow paint onto a salt-covered glue star and flower on dark card, the colour spreading along the salt.]() ### [Salt painting]() The full technique, with variations. ![Painted illustration of the painter in oven gloves sniffing a golden loaf, with a ball of dough, a rolling pin, a bowl of yeast and a pretzel.]() ### [Baking bread with yeast]() Why dough rises, on screen and for real. ![Painted illustration of a pumpkin with star-shaped holes and mould spots, a bottle foaming over in orange and purple and a pipe-cleaner spider, the painter holding a witch's hat.]() ### [Halloween]() Friendly spooky science for October. ## Make a snowflake on the screen [Play in your browser]()[All seasons]()