Free Christmas Animals coloring pages: 120+ printable PDF designs of pets, woodland creatures, ocean animals, and a few fantasy favorites dressed up for the holidays. Every page can be downloaded as a PDF to print or colored online in the browser.
Pairing animals with Christmas imagery has a long history. The first commercial Christmas card was created in 1843 by Sir Henry Cole, and by the 1860s, animals, especially robins, had become one of the most common images on the cards that followed, alongside snow scenes and holiday greetings. That same instinct, using a familiar animal to make a wintry scene feel warmer, is what runs through this collection: a squirrel tucking acorns into a stocking, a fox in a scarf holding a cookie, a corgi pulling a sleigh of gifts.
This set spans four broad categories: everyday pets like cats and dogs, woodland and backyard wildlife, ocean animals, and a smaller group of exotic, fantasy, and prehistoric animals. A couple of pages also feature recognizable characters, including Pete the Cat and a Paw Patrol scene, kept in the grid as holiday designs without retelling either show.
What Is Inside This Collection
The pages are split into five groups: pets, woodland wildlife, ocean animals, exotic animals, and fantasy or prehistoric animals.
Cats, Dogs, and Other Pets
The largest group by far, with cats and kittens by the tree, dogs and puppies pulling sleighs or wearing scarves, and a corgi hauling a sled of gifts. Several pages repeat the same basic pose across different filenames, so expect a fair amount of overlap if coloring through the full pet section in one sitting. A couple of pages in this group borrow a recognizable character, Pete the Cat, and a Paw Patrol scene, but the rest are original pet designs rather than licensed characters.
Woodland and Backyard Wildlife
Foxes, owls, squirrels, raccoons, bears, deer, rabbits, mice, and hedgehogs appear in cozy winter scenes, often holding a cookie, tucked into a stocking, or standing beside a snow globe. These pages lean on backyard and forest animals rather than farm or zoo species, which makes them a natural fit for a lesson on animals that stay active through a cold winter rather than migrating or hibernating.
Ocean and Underwater Animals
A smaller group takes the holiday theme underwater, with dolphins, turtles, an octopus, and a mermaid paired with a dolphin. These pages are a good option for a coastal or beach-town classroom that wants a Christmas page without snow in it, or simply as a change of pace after several snowy woodland scenes.
Exotic Animals from Around the World
Giraffes, kangaroos, elephants, koalas, monkeys, llamas, pigs, and a snake round out a group of animals that do not naturally live anywhere near snow, each shown decorating a tree or posed with holiday props.
Fantasy and Prehistoric Animals
Unicorns, a dragon, and several dinosaur pages close out the set for anyone who wants a Christmas page with a bit of fantasy rather than a real animal.
What Christmas Animals Coloring Pages Do
Fine motor development. The American Academy of Pediatrics lists structured coloring among the activities that build fine motor control in children ages 2 through 7, and the mix of fur texture, scarves, and holiday props across this set gives a child a wide range of small shapes to practice on.
Animal variety and classification practice. Because the collection spans pets, woodland animals, ocean animals, and animals that live nowhere near snow, sorting the pages into groups before or after coloring gives children an easy, low-stakes introduction to basic animal classification.
Anxiety reduction through focus. A 2005 study in the Art Therapy Journal found that structured coloring sessions produced measurably lower anxiety than unstructured drawing, and the small, self-contained scale of most animal portraits here suits a short, calming coloring session.
Seasonal vocabulary building. Repeated holiday props, stockings, snow globes, sleighs, gift boxes, appear across nearly every page, giving young children a consistent, low-pressure way to learn and reuse seasonal vocabulary as they color.
How to Color Christmas Animals Coloring Pages Well
- Foxes: use Burnt Orange or Red Orange for the coat, White for the chest and tail tip, and add a Forest Green scarf for a classic winter fox look.
- Owls: layer two or three shades of Brown across the wing feathers rather than one flat color, and keep the face disc a lighter Tan or Cream to make the eyes stand out.
- Polar bears and snow-white animals: Use a very pale Blue Gray for shading rather than leaving the whole body flat White, since pure White on white paper can make the shape hard to read.
- Corgis and other dogs: keep coat colors consistent with the breed, red, orange, and White for a corgi, so the animal reads correctly even with a Santa hat or scarf added on top.
- Stockings and snow globes: use Scarlet or Forest Green for stockings, and keep the snow globe’s glass dome a very light Sky Blue or left uncolored, so the animal inside stays the visual focus.
- Ocean and exotic animals: keep the animal’s real-world coloring, Gray for a dolphin, yellow-orange spots for a giraffe, and reserve the bright reds and greens for the holiday props layered on top, so the palette does not fight itself.
5 Creative Craft Ideas With Christmas Animals Coloring Pages
1. Animal Ornament. Color a small animal page, cut around the outline, punch a hole at the top, and thread ribbon through to hang it on the tree.
2. Holiday Card. Color one of the pet or woodland animal pages, fold a piece of cardstock in half, and glue the design to the front for a homemade holiday card.
3. Animal Category Garland. Color one animal from each group, pets, woodland, ocean, exotic, and fantasy, punch holes, and string them along ribbon in order to make a garland that doubles as a simple classification lesson.
4. Gift Tag Set. Color two or three small animal pages, cut them into tag-sized shapes, punch a hole in each, and tie them onto wrapped presents with string.
5. Animal Bookmark. Color a single animal page, trim it into a narrow strip, and laminate it or cover it with clear tape for a durable holiday bookmark.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Christmas Animals coloring pages?
A large free set of printable PDFs and online coloring sheets showing pets, woodland creatures, ocean animals, and a few fantasy animals in holiday scenes.
Why are animals such a common Christmas image?
Animals, especially birds like the robin, became a common feature on Christmas cards by the 1860s, not long after the first commercial Christmas card was printed in 1843. That pairing of animals with winter holiday imagery has continued ever since.
Does this collection include reindeer or Rudolph?
No. Reindeer and Rudolph have their own dedicated coloring collections on the site, so this set focuses on pets, wildlife, and other animals instead.
What kinds of animals are in this collection?
Everyday pets like cats and dogs, woodland animals like foxes and owls, ocean animals like dolphins and turtles, exotic animals like giraffes and kangaroos, and a few fantasy and prehistoric animals like unicorns and dinosaurs.
Are the character pages, like Pete the Cat or Paw Patrol, official?
No. These are fan-made coloring sheets for personal use and are not affiliated with, licensed by, or endorsed by the rights holders of any character that appears in the collection.
Are Christmas Animals coloring pages suitable for young children?
Yes. The simpler portrait-style pages suit young children, while scenes with more background detail work well for older kids.
Can these pages be used for a classroom animal lesson?
Yes. Because the set spans pets, woodland, ocean, and exotic animals, it works well for a basic animal classification activity alongside the coloring itself.
Are these free to download and print?
Yes. Every page is free, with no account, email, or payment required, and can be downloaded as a PDF or colored online in the browser.
Start Coloring
Download any page by clicking the design. No account, email, or payment is required. Pages print directly from the browser at full resolution or open in the online coloring tool for screen use. Share finished pages on Facebook or Pinterest with the share buttons at the top of each design page.
