Christmas Printables for Preschoolers: 10 Easy Ideas for December Days at Home

December afternoons are busy. There are cookies to bake, gifts to wrap, relatives on the way, and a three-, four- or five-year-old who keeps asking how many days until Christmas. A few printable pages in a folder give them something to do while you finish what you started.

Below are 10 Christmas printable ideas for preschoolers, a quick guide to picking pages that work for ages 3 to 5, and an easy way to set it up. Seven of the ideas are in a free Christmas set you can get by email. Most need only a printer, paper and crayons.

What makes a good Christmas printable for a preschooler?

A good page for ages 3 to 5 has one clear task, big lines and simple pictures. If your child has to wait for you to explain it, it's too much. Look for pages where the task is shown with a picture, with wide paths and large shapes to color.

A few other things to check before you hit print:

• Black and white works. It saves color ink for the cards and wrapping paper. Pages designed for black and white work well with a few crayons.
• Not too many words. The task should be clear from the picture, so you don't have to read it out every time.
• One page, one job. Mazes, tracing, dot-to-dot and color-by-key pages each do one thing, so it's easy to see when it's finished.
• Big spaces to color. A tiny gingerbread house with fine detail turns into a frustrating page. Give three-year-olds large areas.
• Paper size. Check that the file prints on your paper: US Letter in the States, A4 elsewhere.

10 Christmas printable ideas for preschoolers

Ideas 1 to 7 are pages from our free Christmas set. Ideas 8 to 10 need only paper and crayons.

1. A penguin maze

The penguin starts at the top and the gift waits at the end, with a wide path in between. Look for one way through and plenty of room for a fat crayon. For three-year-olds, wide paths matter more than pretty ones.

2. Color the tree by the key

A big tree with a small symbol in each part, and a key showing which crayon goes where. It's an easy page to start with, and the finished tree looks great on the fridge.

3. Trace the letter S ("S is for star")

A big letter S to trace with a crayon, with a star to go with it. It's a gentle warm-up and a good way to practice holding a crayon.

4. Find and count

Ornaments, bells and gifts to find on the page and count. There's something to check at the end.

5. Connect the dots, 1 to 10

Start with numbers 1 to 10. The dots join up and a tree appears. If counting to ten is still new, trace the first few dots together, then step back.

6. Find the shadow

A mitten, a snowman, a bell and a gift on one side, their dark shadows on the other. Your child draws a line from each picture to the right shadow.

7. Cut and glue on the shadow

Pieces to cut out and glue onto the matching shadow. Scissors and glue need a grown-up nearby, so save this one for when you're in the room. For little ones, you do the cutting and your child does the gluing. Please stay close while your child cuts.

8. A paper chain countdown (no printer needed)

Strips of paper and a glue stick. Make a chain together, one loop for each day until Christmas, and let your child tear one off each morning. It's a nice daily job and it hangs wherever you like.

9. Match the ornaments

Draw two matching sets of ornaments on a sheet of paper, one on each side. Your child draws a line from each to its twin. No cutting needed, so it works well as a first page of the day.

10. Draw your own card

A folded piece of paper and crayons. Your child draws a tree, a star, or whatever they like, and you write the name inside.

How many Christmas pages should I print?

Three to five pages are plenty for one sitting. Print a few, not the whole stack, so the next ones feel new. Put them in a folder with crayons, show your child the first page once, and then step back. Children can start on their own once they see what the page asks.

Some ideas for keeping it fresh through December:

• Rotate. Use two or three pages now and save the others for another day.
• Mix easy and a little harder. Start with an easy page so it feels like a win, then add a harder one when they ask for more.
• Let them choose. Fan out three pages and let your child pick the order.
• Slip it in a sheet protector. A dry-erase marker lets your child do the same maze again and again, and you print less.

How to set up a December page folder

A simple way to set it up:

1. Pick the spot. A small table or a blanket close to where you're working.
2. Fill a folder. Three to five pages, a few crayons and a pencil for you to write names.
3. Keep it special. The folder comes out for busy stretches (wrapping gifts, cooking, a video call) and goes away after.
4. Plan for travel. If you're headed to a relative's house or a holiday dinner at a restaurant, pack a few pages and crayons in a bag. The Crayon Hour Travel Pack, a $7 add-on at checkout, has 20 half-page activities that need just crayons: no scissors, no glue.

Get the 7 free Christmas pages

Ideas 1 to 7 above are the seven pages in our free Christmas set from The Crayon Hour: the penguin maze, color the tree by the key, trace the letter S, find and count, connect the dots 1 to 10, find the shadow, and cut and glue on the shadow. They come in US Letter and A4. Download them right away, and we'll email you a copy. No card is needed.

If you'd like more variety after that, the full Quiet Time packs from The Crayon Hour have 48 to 240+ pages, from $17. They aren't Christmas-themed, but they include mazes, tracing, dot-to-dot, find and count and shadow matching pages.

For more ideas for afternoons at home, see 12 Quiet Time Activities for 3 Year Olds. Planning other holidays? See Thanksgiving Printables for Preschoolers.

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