Christmas coloring pages starring your own family

Christmas coloring pages starring your own family are easy to make at home: trace a photo of your kids by the tree, let them draw the family themselves, or print a free page and add your own people to it. If you would rather not make it, a personalized coloring book drawn from your photos is the made-for-you option. This guide walks through each one, from free to paid, so you can pick what fits the time you actually have in December.

Why family pages beat a stack of printables

Kids color a page longer when they know who is in it. A page of a generic Santa gets five minutes. A page with their own dog wearing antlers gets a story, a lot of questions about which color the dog really is, and a second request.

I made the first Colorkin book for my own two kids, and the pages they come back to are the ones that show them. That is the whole idea, and you do not need to buy anything to get it.

Option 1: Trace a family photo (free, about 20 minutes)

This is the most personal free option.

1. Pick the photo. Choose one with two to four people, faces large in the frame, even light and a plain background. Decorating cookies at the table, kids in pajamas by the tree, a grandparent reading a book. Skip photos full of string lights. They turn into a scribble of lines.
2. Make it big and light. Open the photo on a tablet or laptop at full brightness, or print it in light gray.
3. Trace. Lay printer paper over the screen (tape it so it does not slide) or hold the print against a sunny window. Trace the main outlines in pencil: heads, hair, clothes, the tree, the presents. Leave out small wrinkles and shadows.
4. Ink it. Go over the final lines with a black felt-tip or fine marker. Thicker lines for toddlers, thinner for older kids.
5. Copy it. Scan or photocopy several copies so a mistake is not a crisis.

The software shortcut. Free editors can do a first pass. The GIMP manual describes its Photocopy filter as making an image look like a black and white photocopy by darkening areas darker than their neighborhood and setting other pixels to white. Expect to tidy it up by hand. Our guide to turning a photo into a coloring page for free covers GIMP and other free tools step by step, and the best apps for photo-to-coloring pages compares the paid ones.

Option 2: Let your child draw the family (free, and the best keepsake)

A family Christmas drawing by your child is a page you will keep for decades. Zero to Three describes drawing in stages, with children moving into pictures of objects or people at around 3 to 5 years, often circles with roughly recognizable features, and naming what they drew after they finish.

Make it a coloring page by setting up the frame:

• For ages 2 to 3: draw a big tree or a house outline and a row of simple circle-faces, one per family member. Your child scribbles color and you write each name underneath.
• For ages 3 to 5: draw the tree and the presents, and leave space for them to draw the people. Ask "Who is opening this present?" and let them add each person.
• For ages 5 and up: a blank page with "Our Christmas" at the top. Ask them to include the pets, the grandparents and whoever else counts as family this year.

Zero to Three also suggests asking a child to tell you about a picture rather than quizzing them on what it is or what color it should be. A purple Grandpa is fine.

Option 3: Personalize a free printable (free, 10 minutes)

Crayola's free Christmas coloring pages include Santas, Christmas trees, stockings, gift packages, a wreath, a Nativity scene and a Three Kings page. To make one yours:

• Write each family member's name on a stocking page, one stocking each.
• Draw your own pet into the scene before you photocopy it.
• Print small photos of faces, cut them out and glue them onto the characters. Kids find this hilarious.
• Add your house number to the door or your town's name to a sign.

Option 4: A family Christmas coloring book

If you want a whole book, you can make one or order one.

Make it. Trace six to twelve family photos from the year using Option 1, add a cover with your family name, and staple or bind them. Our guides to making a coloring book from photos and printing and binding a coloring book at home cover paper, binding and getting dark, crisp lines.

Order it. Several kinds of personalized coloring books exist, from name-only books to pages traced from your photos to full stories built around your family. Our comparison of personalized coloring books with photos lays out the trade-offs, including turnaround times that matter in December.

Colorkin is one of those options. It makes a coloring storybook starring your family from your photos: the Digital Storybook is $29 as a printable PDF, and the Printed Keepsake is $59. Pages are drafted with AI illustration tools from your photos, and a person checks and finishes every one. The free sample page is a quick way to see whether your kids recognize themselves before you order anything.

Christmas page ideas that work for families

Scene	Why it works
Decorating the tree	Everyone has a job, and kids can color their own ornaments
Baking cookies	Flour, aprons and cookie shapes are fun to color
Matching pajamas	Patterns to fill in, and it is a real photo most families have
Opening presents	Big simple boxes are easy for toddlers
The family pet in antlers or a bow	Always the most popular page
Grandparents reading a story	A good page to mail to grandparents who live far away
Your family's own tradition	A Nativity scene, lighting Advent candles, a tamalada, a Christmas market: whatever your family does

For family traditions with roots elsewhere, see our guides to German Christmas traditions for kids and Las Posadas and a tamalada with kids. A finished page also makes a lovely gift: our Christmas gifts for grandparents from grandkids has more ideas, and the rest of our holiday guides are in the family and heritage hub.

Questions parents ask