Salt Crystal Christmas Trees

It's Christmas Eve, everyone.  And for those of you who didn't know, that means tomorrow is...

CHRISTMAS!

So I bring you all a very salty Christmas project.  It's a festive twist on the old salt crystal project that's so common at elementary school science fairs.  If you start it tonight, it should be ready by Christmas morning.

Here's what you'll need:

• Non-corrugated Cardboard
• Bluing
• Ammonia*
• Table Salt, britches!
• Food Coloring*
• Measuring Spoon
• Bowl
• Water
• Scissors

*optional but recommended

Here's what you do:

• Cut some tree shapes out of the cardboard. Put slits in them like so:

•  Slide the two pieces together to make a standy-uppy tree like this:

• Put a bit of food coloring on the branches of the tree, if desired.

•  Now, mix the heck out of
• 1 tbsp. water
• 1 tbsp. salt
• 1 tbsp. bluing
• 1/2 tbsp. household ammonia

(The ammonia is not necessary, but it speeds up the process by a lot. Without it, this might take a couple of days to start working.)

• Stand the tree in the solution and watch it grow!

Obviously, this is very Christmassy.  The shape that you use can be anything, provided it stands up.  I missed the beginning of Hanukkah (sorry, Hasidic Plumber!), but it's still going on, so if you're ambitious with scissors you could probably pull off a menorah.  A Star of David would work well too, with some yellow food coloring or something.  Or for anyone wanting to go the non-affiliated route, a generic snowman would suffice.

There's loads of stuff to do, so use your imaginations, folks.  Happy Holidays!