Tis the season to get creative with slime, and we are up to our elbows in slime over here doing just that! This time around we have been decorating our slime containers with festive Christmas themes. Our easy homemade Christmas slime recipes will fill your jars with awesome slime every time. Santa slime, reindeer slime, and Christmas tree slime are a hit!
FESTIVE SANTA SLIME FOR CHRISTMAS!
EASY CHRISTMAS SLIME
Kids love to play with Christmas slime in their favorite slime colors! Slime making is even more fun when you add in glitter and Christmas colors. We have quite a few Christmas activities to share, and we are always adding more.
We love to add a ton of glitter, and this time we used tinsel glitter which is a bit longer than regular glitter. I think the tinsel glitter adds a fun texture to represent the fur of the reindeer, the needles of the tree, and the fabric of Santa’s hat.
The addition of food coloring is also a simple way to create a fun theme. Special mix-ins like beads and jingle bells or sequins will just make your slime even more fun to play with.
Check out our fun homemade Christmas slime that we made to represent Rudolph, Santa’s hat, and a decorated Christmas tree. We aren’t sure crafty, but we had fun decorating our containers even though they are simple!
Oh and slime is science too, so don’t miss the great information on science behind this easy slime below. Watch our awesome slime videos and see how easy it is to make the best slime!
BASIC SLIME RECIPES
All of our holiday, seasonal, and everyday slime use one of five basic slime recipes that are super easy to make! We make slime all the time, and these have become our go-to favorite slime recipes!
I will always let you know which basic slime recipe we used in our photographs, but I will also tell you which of the other basic recipes will work too! Usually you can interchange several of the ingredients depending on what you have on hand for slime supplies.
Here we use our Saline Solution Slime recipe. Slime with saline solution is one of our favorite sensory play recipes! We make it ALL the time because it is so quick and easy to whip up. Four simple ingredients {one is water} are all you need. Add color, glitter, sequins, and then you are done!
Where do I buy saline solution?
We pick up our saline solution in the grocery store! You can also find it on Amazon, Walmart, Target, and even at your pharmacy.
Now if you don’t want to use saline solution, you can absolutely test out one of our other basic recipes using liquid starch or borax powder. We have tested all these recipes with equal success!
NOTE: We have found that Elmer’s specialty glues tend to be a bit stickier than Elmer’s regular clear or white glue, and so for this type of glue we always prefer our 2 ingredient basic glitter slime recipe.
THE SCIENCE OF CHRISTMAS SLIME
We always like to include a bit of homemade slime science around here! Slime is an excellent chemistry demonstration and kids love it too! Mixtures, substances, polymers, cross-linking, states of matter, elasticity, and viscosity are just a few of the science concepts that can be explored with homemade slime!
What’s slime science all about? The borate ions in the slime activators (sodium borate, borax powder, or boric acid) mix with the PVA (polyvinyl acetate) glue and forms this cool stretchy substance. This is called cross-linking!
The glue is a polymer and is made up of long, repeating, and identical strands or molecules. These molecules with flow past one another keeping the glue in a liquid state. Until…
You add the borate ions to the mixture, and it then starts to connect these long strands together. They begin to tangle and mix until the substance is less like the liquid you started with and thicker and rubbery like slime! Slime is a polymer.
Picture the difference between wet spaghetti and leftover spaghetti the next day. As the slime forms, the tangled molecule strands are much like the clump of spaghetti!
Is slime a liquid or solid?
We call it a Non-Newtonian fluid because it’s a little bit of both! Experiment with making the slime more or less viscous with varying amounts of foam beads. Can you change the density?
Did you know that slime aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)?
It does and you can use slime making to explore states of matter and its interactions. Find out more below…
CHRISTMAS SLIME RECIPE
YOU WILL NEED (PER BATCH):
- 1/2 cup Clear or White PVA School Glue
- 1 tablespoon Saline Solution (must contain boric acid and sodium borate)
- 1/2 cup of Water
- 1/4-1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- Food coloring, glitter
- Craft Supplies {pompoms, google eyes, construction paper, scissors, tape, glue or hot glue gun}
- Slime Containers
HOW TO MAKE CHRISTMAS SLIME
STEP 1: In a bowl mix 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup of glue well to combine completely.
STEP 2: Now’s the time to add your food coloring and glitter! Remember when you add color to white glue, the color will be lighter. Use clear glue for jewel toned colors!
You can never add too much glitter! Mix the glitter, Christmas accessories (see below) and color into the glue and water mixture.
STEP 3: Stir in 1/4- 1/2 tsp baking soda.
Baking soda helps to firm and form the slime. You can play around with how much you add but we prefer between 1/4 and 1/2 tsp per batch. I get asked all the time why do you need baking soda for slime. Baking soda helps to improve the firmness of the slime. You can experiment with your own ratios!
STEP 4: Mix in 1 tbsp saline solution and stir until slime forms and pulls away from sides of the bowl. This is exactly how much you will need with the Target Sensitive Eyes brand, but other brands may differ slightly!
If your slime still feels too sticky, you may need a few more drops of saline solution
. As I mentioned above, start by squirting a few drops of the solution onto your hands and kneading your slime longer. You can always add but you can’t take away. Saline solution is preferred over contact solution.
STEP 5: Start kneading your slime! It will appear stringy at first but just work it around with your hands and you will notice the consistency changes. You can also put it in a clean container and set it aside for 3 minutes, and you will also notice the change in consistency!
SLIME TIP: We always recommend kneading your slime well after mixing. Kneading the slime really helps to improve its consistency. The trick with this slime is to put a few drops of the saline solution onto your hands before picking up the slime.
No more having to print out a WHOLE blog post for just one recipe!
Get our basic slime recipes in an easy to print format so you can knock out the activities!
—>>> FREE SLIME RECIPE CARDS
SANTA SLIME
We added a fun pompom to create a Santa’s hat themed slime recipe! You could always add google eyes to the container too.
CHRISTMAS TREE SLIME
We tossed a handful of colorful plastic pony beads into our Christmas slime recipe! Add a yellow pom pom for a star or make a paper star to add to the top of the container!
RUDOLPH SLIME
Furry reindeer slime for Rudolph. We added jingle bells, a red nose and some google eyes! He needs some antlers too. We used clear glue with brown food coloring and gold tinsel glitter. You can see the length of tinsel glitter is longer then regular glitter in the pictures below.
This Christmas slime would be a great hit for the kids to make and give to friends or for an activity at a holiday party! Let the kids decorate their own containers and come up with their own themes. You supply the color, glitter, and craft supplies!
SIMPLE HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS SLIME FOR HOLIDAY PLAY!
We have many more Christmas slime recipes to share! Click on the picture below to see how to make scented gingerbread slime, candy cane fluffy slime, and so many more fun theme slimes for the holidays!
We also enjoy trying out all sorts of Christmas science and STEM activities around here! Grow crystals, build structures, make magic milk, and more fun Christmas experiments. Includes free printable ideas too!
No more having to print out a WHOLE blog post for just one recipe!
Get our basic slime recipes in an easy to print format so you can knock out the activities!
—>>> FREE SLIME RECIPE CARDS
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