Elf on the Shelf Coloring Pages

Every December, in homes all over North America, a little elf in a red suit and pointed hat turns up somewhere new each morning. These elf on the shelf coloring pages follow that elf through a month of mischief, and each page is a ready-made idea for where the family elf could appear next.

The elf gets into everything. It sits on a shelf between two plants, pops out of a COOKIES jar, peeks out of a knitted stocking on the stairs, hides among the ornaments on the tree, gets tangled in a string of Christmas lights, balances on a paper chain across a doorway and climbs the curtains. It takes a bath in a bowl of marshmallows next to a mug of hot cocoa, makes a snow angel in spilled flour, fishes from the bookshelf with a candy cane, swings from the ceiling fan, hangs upside down from the kitchen faucet and slides down the decorated banister. It rides a toy train around the tree, drives a toy car across the floor, stands on the piano keys, sits in a music box beside the little ballerina, gets wrapped up in ribbon, stacks a tower of blocks and swings under a hanging plant.

The kitchen is a favorite spot: sprinkling a tray of Christmas cookies, sitting in a fruit bowl or on a bunch of bananas, roasting a marshmallow at the fireplace and peeking out of a jar of candy canes. At bedtime it naps in a fuzzy slipper and sleeps in a cardboard box labeled ELF BED. It makes friends with a puppy on the rug and rides a sleeping cat, sits on a pile of presents, inside a snow globe, on a snowy windowsill, in a mitten hanging on a hook and on top of a starry teapot, and struggles to carry a giant walnut. A big portrait of the elf's smiling face is the simplest page of all.

The elf on the shelf tradition

The tradition comes from a children's book published in 2005, which tells the story of a scout elf sent by Santa to watch over a family during the Christmas season. Each night the elf flies back to the North Pole to report to Santa, and each morning it lands in a new spot in the house, which children race to find. The one rule: the elf must not be touched, or it may lose its magic. The season usually starts right after Thanksgiving and ends on Christmas Eve, when the elf returns to the North Pole until next year.

Coloring the elf

The classic elf has a simple look:

• A red suit and a red pointed hat.
• A white collar with pointed edges, like the petals of a flower.
• Big blue eyes and rosy cheeks.

Many families have a girl elf, or an elf with a different skin tone or hair color, so color the elf to match the one who visits your home. The scenes around it are full of Christmas colors: green tree branches, red and gold ornaments, candy cane stripes and cocoa browns.

Quick pages and busy scenes

The portrait, the snow globe and the elf on the shelf are simple enough for young children. Quick to color, above the grid, begins with:

• Elf portrait
• Walnut
• Cat ride

The tree, the stairs and the kitchen scenes are busier. Lots of detail begins with:

• Tangled lights
• Candy cane jar
• Toy train

Using the pages in December

These pages are handy on the busiest nights of the season. On a night when there is no time to set up a scene, leave a colored page where the elf would have been, with a note that it was drawn at the North Pole. Children can also color a page each day of the countdown and keep them in a folder as an elf diary. On the last morning, the goodbye page can be the portrait, colored to look just like your elf.

Printing

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 nothing is cut off. The printing guide shows the setting. Add to pack prints a whole month of elf ideas at once. More Christmas is in the Christmas coloring pages, the Santa coloring pages, the gingerbread coloring pages and the snowman coloring pages.

These are original drawings of a Christmas elf made for this site. The site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the makers of The Elf on the Shelf.