Santa prompts by age
“Use this prompt” fills in the generator and sets the detail level. Every page is drawn fresh, so if one misses, change one detail and try again.
| For | Prompt | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Ages 2 to 5Simple | a smiling Santa face with rosy cheeks, a round nose, a fluffy beard and a hat with a pom-pom, big simple shapes, no background One big face, no body and no scene. The beard is a large shape that is easy to stay inside. |
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| Ages 3 to 6Simple | Santa standing next to a small Christmas tree and holding one wrapped present, big simple shapes, no background Two objects and one person, all with thick outlines. |
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| Ages 6 to 9Medium | Santa standing by a fireplace holding a glass of milk and a plate of cookies, stockings above the fire, clean bold outlines The glass and the cookies are small separate things to color, and the fire gives the page a warm corner. |
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| Ages 9 to 12Medium | Santa loading presents into a sleigh in front of a snowy barn, moon and stars drawn as outlines A scene with a job in it. Outlined stars keep the sky white. |
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| Teens and adultsDetailed | Santa Claus in a coat patterned with holly leaves and snowflakes, with an ornate scrollwork border around him Pattern on the coat and a border turn a simple figure into a long page. |
Pick the page for the child
Santa is easier to color than most people expect, because his shapes are big and round: the hat, the face, the beard, the belly. The part that decides how long a page lasts is the background.
| Page | What it asks of a child | Ages |
|---|---|---|
| Santa face | Four or five big areas, no background | 2 to 5 |
| Santa and one object | A person, a tree or a present, thick lines | 3 to 6 |
| Santa with milk and cookies | Small separate details and a fire | 6 to 9 |
| Santa with a sack in the snow | Furry trim, a tree, snow hills | 6 to 12 |
The examples above are the face, the milk-and-cookies page and the sack in the snow. Download the one that matches the child, or use a prompt from the table to make a new one.
A letter to Santa on a coloring page
Print the Santa face, have the child color it, then use the white space around it for a letter. The generator draws pictures and cannot be relied on to spell words, so write the words by hand. A page with the child's own writing on it also keeps well in a card or a box of Christmas keepsakes.
Where Santa comes from
The story of Santa Claus begins with Saint Nicholas, a bishop of Myra whose feast day is 6 December (St Nicholas Center). His gift-giving stories are tied to the custom of children hanging up stockings for presents (St Nicholas Center).
One Santa tradition in the United States started with a typo. In 1955 a Sears ad listed a phone number for children to call Santa, with a typo. The number reached the Continental Air Defense Command in Colorado, where Colonel Harry Shoup and his staff played along and told the children where Santa was. In 1958 Shoup organized a Santa-tracking program, and NORAD has kept the tradition going every year since (Smithsonian Magazine).