Hello.
It is easy to find internships, research programs, research opportunities during the summer. I have been having a hard time finding an internship, research program, or some similar program during the winter break. I am pretty sure there has to be some program like the ones mentioned above offered during the winter for like 4 weeks?
You might be hard-pressed (as you have found out) to find a program during winter break. Winter breaks vary from school to school so it’s hard to have program dates that overlap with lots of different schools and many labs/schools are closed during the holidays (Christmas, New Year’s). Then there’s the fact that many students want to go home for those holidays. And then there’s the biggest problem of all–winter break is a really short amount of time and it’s hard to get anything significant accomplished in that amount of time. I mean how much time would you even have? Since winter break usually surrounds Christmas/New Year’s, you would likely have to have the entire program in a week (or possibly two) before Christmas or maybe a week after New Year’s. That’s not enough time to do anything significant in a research setting, and I highly doubt you’ll get anything out of an internship that that’s short. Much of that time would have to be training as well. Even if you did find something offered during winter break, I doubt you would get much significant experience out of it.
I think you would be better off looking for summer research programs or internships. If you really want something over winter break, then I think your best bet is to find something that happens during the school year (like doing research with a professor at your university or an internship at a nearby company) and then continue working through winter break.