Christmas drawing activities for kids

The best Christmas drawing activities for kids are step-by-step holiday characters (Santa, reindeer, snowmen, elves), homemade cards and gift tags, paper ornaments, and a drawing advent calendar with one festive prompt a day. They keep excited kids busy, make gifts for family and give a calm break from screens during the holidays.

Draw holiday characters step by step

Kids love drawing Santa, Rudolph, gingerbread people and snowmen, and step-by-step lessons make them look the way kids hope. In a How to Draw book, every step shows the complete drawing as a light gray outline, so kids can see where each black line goes. Younger kids can trace a dotted outline and color it in, and older kids can try a grid version.

For a big collection of free Christmas pages, puzzles and coloring sheets, visit our sister site Christmas Activity Books, or grab the free Christmas activity sheets.

Make homemade cards

1. Fold a sheet of card in half.
2. Draw one big character on the front: a snowman, a reindeer face or a decorated tree.
3. Go over the lines in marker, then color.
4. Write a message inside and sign it with the date.

Grandparents keep these for years. See turn kids’ art into gifts for more ideas.

Paper ornaments

Draw small characters on card, color them, cut them out and punch a hole at the top for ribbon. Snowflakes, stars, mittens and little elves work well. Write the child’s name and the year on the back.

A drawing advent calendar

Write 24 Christmas prompts on slips of paper and pull one each day of December. A few ideas:

• A snowman on vacation.
• Santa’s sleigh with a flat tire.
• The elf who wrapped the cat.
• A reindeer learning to fly.
• Your dream gingerbread house.
• What your pet wants for Christmas.
• A monster’s Christmas sweater.
• A robot helping Santa.

Collect the drawings in a folder and make a December book at the end.

Wrapping paper and tags

Cover plain kraft paper with small drawings: stars, holly, candy canes, tiny Santas. Cut gift tags from card and draw a character on each.

Christmas Day calm

A new drawing book under the tree gives kids a quiet activity for the afternoon when the excitement gets too much. It’s also great for travel to family. See road trip activities for kids.

In the classroom

Directed drawing of a snowman or reindeer is a classic December lesson. See directed drawing for how to run it, and pair it with a writing prompt: “If I were Santa’s helper...”

After Christmas

Keep the drawing going over the break with our winter break activities.

Tip: Set up a “holiday drawing station” with paper, markers and a drawing book on the kitchen table for December. Kids will drift over whenever they need a break.

The book that helps

How to Draw Christmas, Trace Then Color Cartoon Christmas Characters and Draw by Grid Christmas cover every age with Santa, reindeer, elves, snowmen and more.

How to Draw: ChristmasSee it on Amazon

Trace Then Color: Cartoon Christmas CharactersSee it on Amazon

Draw by Grid: ChristmasSee it on Amazon

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