The Christmas holidays can be a challenging time to keep kids focused and engaged at school, as visions of winter vacation, Christmas presents and snowmen take center stage in their minds. Teachers have come up with creative ways of making education fun and holiday-related in the month of December. Some of the most creative ways are experiments that relate directly to Christmas.

Science Experiment Ornaments
Borax crystals closely mimic the structure of ice crystals.
This easy experiment gives kids the chance to make beautiful snowflake ornaments while learning a bit about minerals and reactions to temperature change. Using chenille stems, boiling water and borax, you can create intricate crystalline snowflakes. Form the chenille stems into snowflake shapes, dissolve the borax in boiling water and submerge the snowflakes into the solution. Remove the snowflakes from the water and borax solution and hang them to dry. Overnight they will form beautiful crystals that older children can examine more closely under a magnifying glass.

Instant Snow
Even people in the Deep South can have a little snow for Christmas.
If your students are dreaming of a white Christmas, why not make sure that they get to see snow? Using an instant snow polymer that you can purchase from a teaching supply store, you can instantly turn a thin, white powder into a cup of snow. This polymer expands to 40 times its original size, and its texture and consistency are very close to that of snow, without the chill.

Christmas Light Fun
Put old Christmas tree lights to good use by making a simple circuit.
Stringing up Christmas lights is one of the most hated tasks for many grown-ups. This experiment gives you the chance to put some of those old strings of lights that just don't seem to work right anymore to good use. Carefully snip off a section of the lights, with the bulb attached, and use a D battery and electrical tape to create a simple electrical circuit. Children enjoy watching the bulb light up without being plugged into the wall.