Christmas Candy STEM Challenges combine festive fun with critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity. Whether you’re building candy cane structures, experimenting with dissolving candy canes or designing Santa’s sleigh, this activity is ideal for kids of all grades.
Christmas Candy STEM Challenges to Try
Christmas candy STEM activities are designed to make learning fun during the holiday season. They engage students in the engineering design process, math, and even chemistry! These challenges encourage kids to:
- Build structures using candy canes, gumdrops, and toothpicks
- Explore chemical reactions with peppermint candies, vinegar, and soda
- Solve problems such as creating stable designs or meeting specific criteria and constraints
- Develop critical thinking skills while having holiday-themed fun
💡Make sure to check out our 25 Days of Christmas STEM Challenges with free printable! Look for more printable Christmas challenges below.
Favorite Christmas Candy STEM Ideas:
Candy Cane Tower Building Challenge
- Task kids with constructing the tallest or strongest tower using candy canes, gumdrops, and toothpicks. How about a chimney for Santa?
Dissolving Candy Cane Experiment
- Test how candy canes dissolve in liquids like water, soda, or vinegar. This activity introduces kids to basic chemistry concepts and lets them observe chemical reactions (free printable too). Also try bending candy canes to observe materials properties.
Santa’s Sleigh Engineering Challenge
- Use candy canes as runners and gumdrops or peppermint candies as part of the structure. The goal is to design a sleigh that can carry a small load (like jingle bells or ornaments) down a ramp without breaking.
Candy Catapult Construction
- Build a catapult using craft sticks, pipe cleaners, and gumdrops. Launch small items like marshmallows or jingle bells and measure the distance for a fun math extension. Take a look at our Christmas catapult (free printable) for inspiration.
Christmas Tree STEM Building Challenge
- Challenge kids to build a freestanding Christmas tree using only candy canes, gumdrops, and toothpicks.
Engineering, Math, and Science
These activities naturally incorporate math and science concepts:
- Math: Measuring heights, counting materials, and solving geometry problems related to their builds.
- Science: Exploring chemical reactions in dissolving candy cane experiments and discussing physical properties like stability and breakage. Crushed candy canes are a great example of a physical change.
- Engineering: Following the engineering design process to plan, build, test, and improve their creations. See our Candy Cane STEM story below!
Adapting for Different Grades
These challenges can be tailored for various age groups:
- Younger Kids (grades K-2): Simple building challenges and guided worksheets.
- Older Kids (grades 3-5): More complex tasks, like designing Santa’s sleigh or testing multiple variables in candy cane experiments.
- Middle School: Add advanced concepts like calculating load-bearing capacities or exploring the chemical properties of liquids.
Bonus STEM Challenge: Christmas Candy Catastrophe!
Turn this activity into a story-based challenge, such as “The Great Candy Cane Calamity [here].” Have students design a solution to save the candy cane factory from a snowstorm or repair Santa’s broken sleigh using candy cane-based materials. Adding a narrative element boosts engagement and encourages imaginative thinking and the use of the engineering design process.
More Fun Christmas STEM Challenges
Easy setup, awesome fun, hands-on learning—and all of this was accomplished with leftover Christmas cards. Need more fantastic Christmas STEM activities to keep you busy this season? We never have a shortage!
Free Resources and Printables
Download free worksheets and task cards to support your activities, such as:
- STEM planning sheets for kids to map out their designs
- Christmas science experiment tracking sheets
- Criteria and constraints lists to guide problem-solving
- Winter STEM activities to extend the learning
Santa’s Sleigh Challenge: Santa needs a sleigh to make his rounds. But what happens if Santa’s sleigh is down for repairs with no time to spare? It’s up to you to design and build Santa a new sleigh with this Christmas STEM challenge, complete with free printable worksheets.
Jingle Bell STEM Challenge: This is our version of the classic egg drop challenge with a more Christmasy theme. Can you quiet a jingle bell so it doesn’t make any noise?
Christmas Tree STEM Challenge: The challenge is to build a Christmas tree with just 100 cups.
Christmas Card STEM Challenge: The best way to recycle all those Christmas cards! What kind of structures can you build with a heap of Christmas cards?
Christmas Catapult: Design and build a simple catapult, and test how far you can fling the red and white pom and poms. Almost to the North Pole!
Santa’s Balloon Rocket: A fun Christmas version of the classic balloon rocket. Explore forces as you send Santa flying across the room.
Check out more fun Christmas STEM projects here.
Printable Christmas STEM Project Pack
200+ PAGES OF HOLIDAY THEME STEAM, STEM, Science, and Art!
- 25+ Christmas theme science and STEM activities with printable sheets, instructions, and useful information all using easy-to-source materials perfect for limited-time needs. Includes a holiday theme engineering pack with fun, problem-based challenges for kids to solve! NEW observation sheets included.
- Try a Santa’s Letter airplane challenge or take the gingerbread house-building challenge!
- Explore the five senses with a specially designed Santa’s Lab pack.
- Try a mini nature study with your favorite type of Christmas tree.
- Try your hand at building shapes with gumdrop structure challenge cards or build shapes with jingle bells. Or try the Christmas-themed paper chain challenge!
- Christmas Screen-free Coding activities include algorithm games, binary code ornaments, and more!
- Explore 6+ Christmas Art Projects with famous artist-inspired activities that combine art history, process art techniques, and more with simple to-do ideas.
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