The holiday season is over and families around town are taking down Christmas trees – but the discards still have a purpose. The Lawrence Arts Center is hoping their fir forest sparks the imagination of their preschool students.

5-year old Simon Pool thought it was going to be a tree maze. Aiden Berndsen-Perez, 5, said they looked like pine trees. Kylee Wales, 5, said it was like running around in a maze.

Preschoolers at the Lawrence Arts Center are going into the woods and their teachers are hoping it plants seeds of creativity.

“The forest is to spark the imagination because when the children come out here and play, they will have come into a forest today,” said preschool director Linda Reimond. “It will spark some creativity in their artwork, in their drawings, in their stories, in their games.”

At first glance, the kids just wanted to trek through the trees.

“I ran around the tree maze,” said Simon. Kylee said, “I would play hide and go seek.”

And Aiden wanted to be his favorite video game character. “I did Sonic (the Hedgehog), which is kind of a play. I was kind of playing, but not that much.”

But lessons inside the classroom will go along with the fun forest.

“We will paint with the different kinds because there’s different kinds of trees,” said Reimond. “We’re going to build sculptures with all those old pieces that are out there.”

And the kids enjoy the thicket of new experiences.

“I like them because they’re really tall,” said Kylee. Simon thought “it was cool.” But Aiden didn’t know how they did it. “It’s because it’s really awesome and how could that much trees be in one little sand?”

The trees were donated from places around town. This is the second year the Lawrence Arts Center has set up the forest.