Christmas Color by Numbers for Kids: How It Works, Which Age and Printing Tips

Some children love a blank colouring page; others want to know exactly which colour goes where. If yours is in the second group – or you simply want a calm, quiet activity for the Christmas holidays – Christmas color by numbers pages (colour-by-number, as we call them in our book) are a lovely middle ground between colouring and a puzzle. Here is how they work, when children are ready, how to help a beginner and a printing tip that saves frustration.

What are Christmas color by numbers pages?

A colour-by-number picture is divided into small areas, each with a number inside. At the top or bottom of the page sits a key: 1 = red, 2 = green, 3 = yellow and so on. Your child finds each number, checks the key and colours that area in the matching colour. When every area is filled, the picture appears – a bauble, a present or a Christmas tree.

It looks simple, but a lot is going on: number recognition, matching, following a rule, colouring inside the lines and patience. That is why it suits the slow days between Christmas and New Year so well.

Is my child ready? Ages 3–4 vs 5–7

Ages 3–4

• Most children are just learning to recognise numbers 1–5. Choose pictures with only a few colours and large areas.
• Sit together and work on one number at a time: “Let’s find all the 1s and make them red.”
• Don’t worry about staying in the lines – recognising the number and choosing the right crayon is the real win.

Ages 5–7

• Children can usually read the key on their own and work independently for 15–20 minutes.
• They enjoy the “reveal” moment and can check their own work when the picture is finished.
• Older children can make their own colour-by-number: draw a simple picture, divide it into areas and write a key for a sibling.

How to help a beginner read the colour key

1. Lay out only the crayons you need. Put them in the same order as the key – red, green, yellow, blue, brown – so the right one is always within reach.
2. Colour the key first. If the key is printed in black and white, let your child colour a small dot next to each number. Now the key is their own.
3. One number at a time. Finish all the 1s before moving on to the 2s. It is less confusing than jumping around the picture.
4. Tick it off. Put a small tick next to each number in the key when it is done.
5. Point, then colour. For younger children, point to an area and ask “Which number is this? Which colour is that?”
6. Accept creative choices. If your child wants a purple tree, that is fine – it is Christmas, not an exam.

Make your own Christmas color by number in 10 minutes

No colour-by-number pages in the free sample – but you can draw a simple one yourself:

1. Draw a big, simple shape on plain paper: a Christmas tree, a star or a bauble.
2. Divide it with a pencil and ruler into 8–12 areas.
3. Write a number in each area – 1 to 3 for ages 3–4, up to 5 for older children.
4. Draw the key at the bottom: a small coloured square next to each number.

Older children can swap roles and make one for a sibling or a grandparent.

Printing tip: the only pages that use a little colour

In My Christmas Activity Book, everything prints well in black and white – only the colour-by-number legend uses a little colour, so children can see at a glance which colour belongs to which number. If you have a colour printer, print just those pages in colour and the rest in black and white to save ink. If you only have black and white, simply write the colour names next to the numbers or let your child colour the key dots first, as described above.

Ordinary printer paper is fine; thicker paper helps if your child presses hard with felt-tip pens.

The 3 colour-by-number pictures in My Christmas Activity Book

The book has three colour-by-number pictures – a bauble, a present and a Christmas tree – using red, green, yellow, blue and brown. The book also has a shadow-matching game, where children draw a line from each picture to its shadow: a good warm-up for the careful looking that colour-by-number needs. The colour-by-number pages are not part of the free sample; they are only in the full book.

More puzzles in the book and a free sample

Besides colour by number, the 32-page book for ages 3–7 has colouring pages, mazes, dot-to-dots, spot-the-difference puzzles, word searches, counting and tracing pages, with the answers at the back. The free sample lets you try the style first with a nutcracker colouring page, an easy maze, a dot-to-dot from 1 to 10 and a counting page. For ideas by age, see our guide to printable Christmas worksheets.

Download the free sample See the full book Printable Christmas worksheets