A year of coloring, season by season

In our house, coloring follows the calendar. There are pumpkins in October and snowmen in December, and somewhere around spring the kids start asking for bunnies. Marking the season with a page is one of the easiest ways I know to make an ordinary afternoon feel like part of something, and they’re always more into a page when it matches what’s going on outside. This is a walk through the whole year, season by season, with where to find the pages for each.

Why seasonal pages are worth it

A seasonal page lands harder than a random one, because it’s tied to something the child is already excited about, a holiday coming up or the first proper snow. They make easy decorations and homemade cards, so the coloring turns into something useful around the house. And if you’re a teacher, a seasonal page is a simple way to tie an activity to whatever you’re covering that month. The one practical thing to remember is to print a little ahead, because the fun is in the run-up as much as the day itself.

MoMo’s tip: “I love a costume. Color me a Santa hat in December and some bunny ears at Easter, and I’ll join in for every season.”

Spring

Spring is when everything wakes up, and the pages follow, all flowers and baby animals, with plenty of rain to color in too. The big spring occasion is Easter, with eggs and bunnies that suit every age, right down to the littlest scribbler. Mother’s Day lands in spring as well, and a card a child colored themselves beats a shop-bought one every time. And Earth Day is a lovely one for talking about the planet while you color it in.

Summer

Summer slows the pace right down, with beach scenes and ice cream, sunshine and bugs in the garden. Father’s Day falls early in summer, and the same homemade-card trick works just as well for dad. If you’re in the US, Independence Day brings out the fireworks and flags. And once school lets out, a stack of summer pages is a handy boredom-beater for the long days.

Autumn

Autumn is the busiest season for us. It opens with back to school, when backpacks and school buses are suddenly everywhere. Then comes Halloween, far and away the biggest coloring season of the year, with pumpkins and friendly ghosts for every age and nerve level. If you’ve got a little one who finds the spooky stuff a bit much, just stick to the cute end of the collection. Día de los Muertos follows right after, with sugar skulls and marigolds, and Diwali brightens the season too, with diya lamps and rangoli patterns to color. The season closes with Thanksgiving in the US and Canada, all turkeys and harvest tables. Underneath all of it, plain autumn pages of leaves and woodland animals carry the season.

Winter

Winter is all about Christmas, the biggest of the lot, with Santa, reindeer, trees and snowmen, more than enough to keep the whole family coloring through the break. Hanukkah lights up December too, with menorahs and dreidels. New Year brings fireworks and a fresh set of numbers to color in. Then Valentine’s Day in February, all hearts, and a sweet one for classroom card-making. Underneath all of it, plain winter pages of snowflakes and cosy scenes carry the cold months. Late winter also brings Lunar New Year, with dragons and the animal of the year to color. And if you’re in Europe like me, St. Nicholas Day in early December and Three Kings in January are worth a page too, so it’s worth a look through the full holiday collections.

Getting the most out of seasonal coloring

A few things make seasonal coloring go further:

• Print a week or two ahead. The excitement builds in the run-up, and teachers especially need the lead time to plan around it.
• Turn them into decorations and cards. A colored page taped to the window or folded into a card is half your holiday craft sorted, and there are more ideas like it in my guide to screen-free activities.
• Mix the levels for the whole family. Print the same seasonal theme at different difficulties so everyone colors together, which is the trick I explain in choosing the right page for your child.
• Watch for new sets. Fresh seasonal pages go up before each season, so if you’d like a heads-up, the newsletter is the place to get it.

However you mark the year, there’s a page for it. You can always browse the full collection, and on the day itself, print a couple of extra for the inevitable “can I do another one”.

Written by Martin, who founded Coloring.photos and draws every page on it, and is a dad of three who has colored a lot of pumpkins.