Who it's for
Children aged 4 to 8, and the grown-up reading beside them. The lines are thick and the shapes are big, so a small hand can finish a whole picture without giving up halfway, and nothing is so fiddly that it ends in tears on Christmas Eve.
It is made to be read aloud. Each of the first 27 pictures has one couplet of the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, usually credited to Clement Clarke Moore, printed underneath, so you read a line, your child looks for the mouse, and then the coloring starts. If you would like to read the poem first, the full text and its story are here.
Inside the book
The poem, one couplet under each of the first 27 pictures, then 23 more Christmas scenes:
- Gingerbread house
- Hot cocoa
- Christmas tree
- Snowman family
- Penguin in a scarf
- Polar bear hug
- Cozy cabin
- Wreath on the door
- Mittens and scarf
- Candy cane jar
- Reindeer with bells
- Elf baking cookies
- Cat in a Santa hat
- Puppy and present
- Sleigh full of gifts
- Snow globe
- Gingerbread family
- Christmas cupcakes
- Little nutcracker
- Stack of presents
- Building a snowman
- Cozy reading nook
- Ornament pattern
How to use it
- Read one page a night. Start on 28 November and the 27th couplet lands on Christmas Eve, so the book becomes a countdown as well as a coloring book.
- Find the mouse first. A small mouse in a Santa hat hides in every one of the 50 pictures. Looking for him gets children to study the whole page before they pick up a crayon, and it keeps older brothers and sisters interested too.
- Tear out the finished ones. Every picture is on its own sheet with nothing printed on the back, so a finished page can go on the fridge without losing the next one.
- Use what you have. Crayons, colored pencils and water-based markers all work well. Very wet markers can still soak through paper, so slip a piece of card behind the page. There is more on that in our guide to markers that don't bleed through.
How it compares
Some Christmas coloring-book covers emphasize the number of designs inside. This one gives the pictures an order and a reason. The first 27 pictures follow the 1823 poem a couplet at a time, bringing its story to the coloring pages, and 23 additional Christmas scenes follow. A small mouse in a Santa hat hides in all 50 pictures, inviting children to look more closely at each scene. Every picture sits on its own sheet with a blank back, so nothing is printed behind it and a finished page can be cut out without losing another.
Frequently asked questions
Is the whole poem in the book?
Almost. The book follows the 1823 poem couplet by couplet, with one change: the couplet about St. Nick's pipe is left out, because the book is made for young children. Everything else is there, in order.
What age is it for?
Ages 4 to 8. Younger children enjoy it with a grown-up helping; older ones like the hunt for the mouse and coloring the detail in the bonus scenes.
How big are the pages?
8.5 x 11 inches, a standard letter-size paperback, 104 pages in all, with 50 pictures.
Will markers show through to the next picture?
No. Each picture is printed on one side of the sheet only, so even if a marker soaks through, it lands on a blank page, not on the next picture.
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