We were looking for a fun science experiment to do at home over the Christmas holidays and found a simple STEM activity which kept my children busy. They love simple science experiments they can do at home and had so much fun trying to grow their own Christmas trees.

Grow your own Christmas tree sponge equipment

Kitchen sponge

Cress seeds

Plastic container

Grow your own Christmas tree sponge

We love a STEM experiment, this is something which combines elements of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. My kids love to be out in the garden but cress is something that can be grown indoors all year round. This experiment doesn’t require much equipment and the results can be seen in a few days.

My kids love to grow and eat cress. It’s a fun way to teach them about where food comes from and it’s so easy to grow indoors on a windowsill.

I used ordinary kitchen sponges to grow the cress seeds but as this was a Christmas craft we cut the sponges into tree shapes.

We marked an outline in black pen, then carefully cut into the sponge with scissors.

My children put their sponges into a clear container and sprinkled cress seeds over the tree shape.

The children made sure there was plenty of water in the container and topped it up every other day. It didn’t take long for the seeds to start growing and we were able to cut cress to enjoy with our egg sandwiches.

The best thing about cress is that more of the seeds sprouted as we cut the fully grown cress. It was a fun Christmas science craft for my kids to learn from.

You may be interested in our other science experiments for kids:

How to make a water compass

Grow your own salt water crystals

Skittles vs Smarties experiment

How to dye white flowers with food colouring

Make your own watercolour snow paint

Dissolving candy cane experiment