Carnival Coloring Pages

Carnival means something slightly different depending on where you grew up: a traveling fair with rides and games, a circus under a striped tent, or a street parade with drums and feathered masks. These carnival coloring pages bring all three together, so a child can spend a whole day at the fair without leaving the table.

The rides come first. A Ferris wheel turns its swinging gondolas behind a rope fence hung with bunting, a carousel of prancing horses spins under a scalloped canopy, a roller coaster car climbs a curving wooden track, and a helter skelter tower wraps its slide around itself. There are swing boats, a spinning teacup ride under paper lanterns, a bumper car under a string of lights and the entrance of the bumper car arena beneath a sign framed with bulbs.

Then the food. Cotton candy spins in a striped stall, candy apples wait on a tray, a popcorn cart stands under its umbrella, and a stall is piled with pretzels and donuts. There is a lemonade jar with a tap, a counter of candy sticks and a cart full of balloons and pinwheels.

The games line the midway: a ring toss with teddy bear prizes, a ball toss board, a high striker with its bell and mallet, shelves of prizes above a shooting gallery, and a stall of goldfish bowls. The circus has its own pages, with the big top and its ticket booth, an empty ring with a hoop and a drum stool, trapeze swings above a safety net, a clown pedaling a tricycle with a bunch of balloons, a juggler on a unicycle and a stilt walker in striped trousers. The parade closes the day, with a swan float draped in flowers, three drummers in tall hats, a drum and cymbals beside a feathered headdress, a mask stall, a cart heaped with confetti and streamers, and a bandstand under lanterns waiting for the band. A fortune teller's crystal ball, a painted fairground caravan and a funhouse entrance framed with clown faces add a little mystery.

Where the Ferris wheel came from

The first Ferris wheel was built by the engineer George Ferris for the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, as an answer to the Eiffel Tower of the Paris fair a few years earlier. It was enormous, with cars the size of small rooms, and it gave its inventor's name to every big wheel since. The carousel is much older: horses on a turning platform were used for riding practice long before they became a fairground ride, and the carved and painted horses most people picture today come from the fairs of the late nineteenth century.

The word carnival itself comes from the festivals before Lent, the last days of feasting and dressing up before a time of fasting. That is where the masks, the drums and the parade floats come from, and why Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the carnivals of Venice and Rio are still held in late winter.

Bright colors, used on purpose

Fairgrounds are some of the most colorful places there are, and these pages can take every color in the box. A few ideas keep them from turning into a jumble:

• Stripes in two colors. The big top, the stall awnings and the popcorn umbrella look right in alternating red and white, or blue and yellow. Choose the pair first, then keep to it.
• Gold and silver for the carousel. Poles and trims in yellow or gray make the painted horses stand out.
• Lights are white with a halo. Leave each bulb white and color a soft yellow ring around it; the sign and the string lights will glow.
• Night or day. Coloring the sky dark blue behind the Ferris wheel turns the same page into an evening at the fair.

Easy rides and busy midways

The simplest pages show one ride or one game with little around it, like the high striker and the Ferris wheel. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Ring the bell
• Mask stall
• Cotton candy stand

The detailed pages are crowded with prizes, pastries, lanterns and bunting. Lots of detail begins with:

• Roller coaster
• Pretzels and donuts
• Bandstand

A fair at home

These pages make an easy party theme. Print a handful, set up a few games (a ring toss with paper plates, a ball throw at stacked cups), and let each child choose a page as a prize. Popcorn in paper bags and a jug of lemonade complete the fair. For a birthday, the carousel and the balloon cart make good invitations, colored and folded in half.

Printing a day at the fair

Every page is a free A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size, and on US Letter "fit to page" shrinks the drawing by about six percent so the whole ride stays on the paper. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack gathers a whole fair into one file. More treats are in the candy coloring pages and the ice cream coloring pages, more party pages in the happy birthday coloring pages, and more long days outside in the summer coloring pages.