Holiday Coloring Pages

Seven seasonal collections sit in this category, and together they cover the stretch from the first fallen leaf to Christmas Eve. Halloween brings witches, mummies, friendly ghosts and a pile of candy corn. The fall and pumpkin galleries fill the weeks around it with leaf piles, acorns, apple baskets and a pumpkin sliced open to show its seeds. Thanksgiving has the turkey, the cornucopia and the Mayflower under sail. Christmas gets three galleries of its own: Santa, reindeer and elves in the main one, a gallery of trees, and the gingerbread man running away from the oven.

Printing ahead of each date

A small stack printed a week early saves a scramble on the day. Fall pages work from the first cool week of September, Halloween sheets get the most use in the fortnight before 31 October, and the Thanksgiving set is ready for the fourth Thursday of November. Teachers often run one gallery per week and pin the finished pages along a corridor, which turns into a seasonal display with no extra work. The fall collection even has a Colour by Number Pumpkin with four blank lines for the key, so children decide which color each number gets.

From colored page to decoration

Several designs are shaped for scissors. The Gingerbread Ornament already hangs from a ribbon bow, so cut around the outline, punch a hole and it goes on the tree. The Easy Christmas Bauble works the same way for younger kids. In the Christmas tree coloring pages you will find Tree to Decorate, a bare tree beside an open box of ornaments where children draw their own baubles before coloring. Anything that will hang for weeks lasts longer on card stock, and the how-to-print page explains which paper weight to use.

Which holiday pages suit a group of mixed ages?

Choose a gallery that has an easy page and a detailed one on the same theme. Halloween pairs the Easy Ghost for Toddlers with the Halloween Mandala, and Christmas offers the Easy Christmas Bauble next to the Intricate Christmas Wreath. Everyone colors the same holiday, and each child gets a page that fits.