Grinch Coloring Pages

December is when most families go looking for Grinch coloring pages, and the ones here cost nothing to print or download. The Grinch is drawn the way kids know him from the films: furry, pear-shaped, with a sly grin and long fingers, on sheets with plenty of white space for green.

What the Grinch gets up to in this collection:

• Grinch Christmas scenes: stuffing a stocking in his sack, sewing a Santa suit, pulling a tree out of a chimney, hanging a wreath.
• The Grinch and Max, his loyal dog, on a sled and in a big hug in the snow.
• Portraits of that famous scowl and smile, a good start for small hands.
• Life on Mount Crumpit: napping in a hammock, cooking over a fire, lounging in a patched armchair.
• Other holidays, with a Halloween pumpkin, an Easter basket, a birthday cake and a big heart.

The Grinch story behind the pages

The Grinch first appeared in How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, a picture book by Dr. Seuss published in 1957. He lives in a cave on Mount Crumpit, high above the town of Whoville, and he cannot stand the noise of the Whos celebrating Christmas.

So he dresses as Santa, ties a single antler on his dog Max, and slides down every chimney to take the presents, the trees and even the roast beast. On Christmas morning the Whos sing anyway, and his heart, said to be two sizes too small, grows three sizes that day.

The story came back as a TV special in 1966, directed by Chuck Jones and narrated by Boris Karloff, then as a film with Jim Carrey in 2000 and an animated film from Illumination in 2018. Children who meet him here will find more Seuss characters in the Dr. Seuss coloring pages.

Whoville and the Whos

The Whos are the small, cheerful people of Whoville, who love noise, feasts and singing. The best known is Cindy Lou Who, the little girl who catches the Grinch taking her tree and asks him why. He tells her he is fixing a light, and she goes back to bed.

The rooftops behind the Grinch on the stone wall page are Whoville. Kids can color them in candy colors, the way the town looks in the films, and add tiny Whos in the windows with a fine pen.

Grinch Christmas coloring pages, scene by scene

Many of the sheets follow the book from start to finish, which makes them fun to color in order:

1. The Grinch peeks over a stone wall at the snowy roofs of Whoville.
2. He sews his Santa suit at a sewing machine.
3. He sneaks past snowy hedges and climbs a rocky ledge with a sack on his back.
4. He gets stuck upside down in a chimney, feet in the air.
5. He stuffs a stocking into his sack and drags a whole tree back up a chimney with a rope.
6. Back home, his heart grows: a page shows him standing proudly with a heart on his chest.

Read the book aloud while kids color, stopping at each part of the story. Then staple the sheets together into a homemade Grinch book.

For a full December stack, add the Christmas coloring pages, the Santa coloring pages and the reindeer coloring pages, since Max spends the night playing one.

The Grinch and Max coloring pages

Max is the small brown dog who puts up with everything. The Grinch pulls him along on a little sled, then kneels in the snow to give Max a hug, the softer Grinch from the end of the story.

Max has a light brown coat and floppy ears, with a darker brown on his ears and back. In the book he wears one antler tied to his head with a thread: kids can draw it on with a brown pencil before coloring. Dog fans will find more puppies in the dog coloring pages.

What green is the Grinch?

In the 1957 book the Grinch was drawn in black and white with touches of pink and red. He turned green in the 1966 TV special, and that is the version everyone colors today:

• Fur: a yellowish lime or olive green. Pure grass green looks too bright.
• Eyes: yellow with red pupils in the cartoon, or simply black.
• Santa suit and hat: red with white fur trim.
• Inside of the ears and nose: a darker green.

A red Santa suit that pops

Red next to green can look muddy if the colors touch. Leave a thin white line between the suit and the fur, or color the fur first and let it dry before the red. The white trim of the hat stays white.

Short marker strokes in the direction of the hair make the fur look shaggy. On pencil pages, add a second, darker green near the outline of the body to give the fur some depth.

Snowy Grinch pages for winter

Not every sheet is about stealing Christmas. The Grinch sleds down a hill, hikes up a snowy slope in snowshoes and builds a snowman with a carrot nose and a scarf. These pages work through January, long after the tree is gone.

They pair well with the snowman coloring pages and the winter coloring pages. The armchair and hammock pages, where the Grinch does absolutely nothing, are a hit with kids who know the feeling.

The Grinch all year round

The Grinch also shows up outside December. He carves a jack o'lantern and goes trick or treating in a witch hat for the Halloween coloring pages crowd. He holds a basket of painted eggs for Easter, next to the Easter coloring pages.

For February he hugs a big heart, a nice joke for a character whose heart was too small, and fits right in with the Valentine's Day coloring pages. He even gets a birthday cake with three candles and a balloon.

Easy Grinch pages and a busier one

Most of the Grinch sheets show him alone, with a light background, so preschoolers can manage them in one sitting. Quick to color puts the Grinch portraits and simple poses at the front:

• Grinch at the Door of His Cave
• Grinch Face Portrait
• Grinch with a Heart on His Chest

The village wall, the wreath on the door and the chimney scenes take more time. Lots of detail gathers the pages with the most small shapes:

• Grinch with an Easter Basket
• Grinch Hanging a Wreath

Kids who like a grumpy character with a good heart often enjoy the Nightmare Before Christmas coloring pages and the Elf on the Shelf coloring pages too.

Printing Grinch pages for a class or a Christmas party

Each sheet is an A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi. On Letter paper, the fit to page option keeps the Grinch's long fingers inside the margins. To print the whole story for a class, tap Add to pack below every scene you want, then download them together. The printing guide shows the setting in each browser.