20 Christmas Lights Coloring Pages
Strings of holiday lights turn ordinary places into something magical, and that is the idea behind these pages. Each drawing wraps a cord of bulbs around something unexpected: a bookshelf, a cactus, a clock tower, a ladder, a lighthouse, a mushroom house, an ivy-covered wall and a snowman standing by a post. There is also a classic house outlined along its roof and a mantel draped with lights over the fireplace. Electric Christmas lights are newer than many people think. Thomas Edison's team strung electric bulbs outside his lab in 1880, and an engineer named Edward Johnson put the first electrically lit tree in his New York home in 1882. Before that, families clipped real candles to branches. Coloring the bulbs is the fun part. Give each bulb its own color in a repeating pattern, or keep them all warm white for a cozy look. Leaving a ring of white around each bulb, or adding short lines outside it, makes them look like they are glowing. Most pages have big shapes that suit kids from about age 4.
From one big bulb to a lit up house
Cute Lights Character is the boldest and simplest, one huge bulb for ages 3 to 6. Cute Christmas Lights has five smiling bulbs on a wire with lots of open space. String of Lights spreads small bulbs far apart for ages 4 to 7. Lights on House is the most involved, with dozens of tiny bulbs, fence slats and a snowy pine that suit kids around 6 to 9.
Make a paper light garland
Color String of Lights and Cute Christmas Lights, then cut out each bulb and tape them along a length of yarn to hang across a doorway or window. Use a repeating color pattern, such as red, green, blue and yellow, and ask younger kids to keep the pattern going. On Lights on House, kids can use the same pattern on the roofline so their paper garland matches the house.
