School breaks, long dinners with family, a rainy afternoon in December: printable Christmas coloring pages are one of the easiest ways to keep kids busy without a screen. Print what you need, hand out the crayons and you're done. Here are eight simple ways to get more out of them this season.
1. Set up a holiday coloring station
Clear a corner of the table, add a jar of crayons or markers and a small stack of printed pages. Kids can wander over whenever they want. Refill the stack each morning with a new design so there's always something to look forward to.
2. Turn them into an advent countdown
Print one page per day from December 15 to Christmas Eve and number them. Kids color the page of the day, then hang it up. By Christmas you have a whole wall of their art.
3. Keep the kids' table happy at Christmas dinner
Lay a printed page and a few crayons at each child's seat. It buys the adults a calm first course, and the pages make a nice keepsake.
4. Class parties and Sunday school
Teachers can print a full set for the whole class. Bold outlines and big shapes work well for younger children; add a few more detailed pages for older kids.
5. Homemade gift wrap and cards
Once a page is colored, fold it in half for a card or use it to wrap a small gift. Grandparents love getting a present wrapped in their grandchild's artwork.
6. Fridge and window decorations
Cut out colored trees, stars and gifts and tape them to the fridge or window. It's a free, kid-made holiday decoration that changes every day.
7. A quiet-time routine
Holidays can be overstimulating. Fifteen minutes of coloring before bed is a calm way to wind down after a busy day.
8. Color together
Adults can join in too. Pick one of the more detailed designs from our coloring pages for yourself while the kids color theirs.
Tips for printing coloring pages
- Print at 100% or "Actual size" so nothing gets cut off.
- Regular printer paper is fine for crayons and colored pencils. For markers, use slightly thicker paper so the ink doesn't bleed through.
- Print in black and white to save ink; the pages are line art.
Our printable Christmas coloring pages
Our Christmas Coloring Pages include 10 festive designs: Merry Christmas, Joy, Let it Snow, Snow Day, Gifts, Stockings, Welcome, Shine, Deck the Halls and Home for Christmas. You get US Letter and A4 PDFs and can print as many copies as you like for your home or classroom.
Looking for more? See all our printable coloring pages, or pair them with our printable Christmas gift tags for the presents under the tree.