Halloween Cat Coloring Pages

These free Halloween cat coloring pages put a cat at the center of every Halloween scene: carving a jack-o'-lantern, flying on a broomstick past the moon, trick-or-treating at a front door. Each sheet is a printable PDF with thick, rounded outlines, so a preschooler can color it and an older child still has room for patterns.

Here is what the collection holds:

• Witch cats: a cat in a pointed hat on a broomstick, reading a spell book full of moons and stars, waving a star wand, sitting beside a smiling scarecrow.
• Costumed cats: a cat under a ghost sheet, wrapped up as a mummy under the word BOO, dressed as a little vampire, or wearing a whole jack-o'-lantern suit.
• Pumpkin cats: carving, painting, peeking out of a carved pumpkin, riding in a wagon or a wheelbarrow full of them.
• Trick-or-treat cats: knocking on decorated doors, carrying candy buckets, sorting a pile of wrapped sweets and candy corn.
• Title pages with HALLOWEEN CAT in big bubble letters, for the front of a folder or a classroom door.

Why cats belong to Halloween

The link is old. In European folklore, black cats were often described as the companions of witches, and stories from the Middle Ages onward gave them a reputation for being out and about on dark nights. That is how a cat ended up on the witch's broom in so many Halloween pictures.

Not every tradition saw them as bad news, though. In parts of Britain and Ireland, a black cat crossing your path or turning up at your door was taken as a sign of good luck. Telling children both versions works well: it turns a spooky symbol into a friendly one, which is exactly how the cats on these sheets are drawn.

None of the pages are frightening. The vampire cat has tiny fangs and a big smile, the ghost cat is just a cat under a sheet, and the skeleton it dances with is grinning. That makes the collection a gentle way into Halloween for a child who finds masks and haunted houses a bit much.

Halloween cat coloring pages for little kids

Most drawings are made of large, closed shapes: a round pumpkin, a tall hat, a cat with a curled tail. That makes them a good first Halloween page for children of three or four, who color with a fist and need wide spaces. Quick to color, the button above the grid, puts those plain, open drawings first:

• Cat in a Ghost Costume
• Cat Peeking Out of a Pumpkin
• Vampire Cat

If your child loves real cats, the cat coloring pages and the kitten coloring pages keep the same animal all year, without the costumes.

Busier Halloween cat pages for older children

A few scenes have more to fill: a front door with a wreath and a doormat, a rug covered in candy wrappers, candy corn and a lollipop. They suit children who like to shade, add stripes to every sweet or try a different pattern on each wrapper. Lots of detail shows them first:

• Cat Sorting Halloween Candy
• Cat Knocking at a Door

What colors does a Halloween cat need?

The classic answer is black, and a black cat still leaves plenty to color around it, from orange pumpkins and a purple witch hat to green eyes and a silver moon. A few ways to handle it:

Picking the cat's coat

• Black cat, bright world: color the cat in black or dark gray first, then go loud with orange, purple and lime green around it.
• Leave the eyes for last: yellow or green eyes on a black cat stand out the most.
• Orange tabby: a ginger cat on an orange pumpkin is a nice challenge, use a darker orange for the stripes.
• Gray or white cat: on the ghost costume, a white cat under a white sheet needs a pale blue or gray shadow to stay visible.

Markers, pencils or crayons

With markers, color the dark areas last so the black does not smear into the lighter colors next to it. With colored pencils, press lightly for the fur and harder for the outline of the hat, which gives the cat a soft look against a crisp costume. Crayons are best for the youngest children, who can fill a whole pumpkin in a few strokes and still keep inside the thick lines.

A Halloween cat party or classroom table

Cats work for every age group, so these sheets are easy to hand out at a party where children are three to ten. Some ideas that use them:

1. Print a mix: a few quick pumpkins for the youngest, the busy door and candy scenes for the older ones.
2. Put the title page on the table and let each child sign their name around the bubble letters.
3. Make a costume parade on paper: each child picks a cat costume (ghost, mummy, vampire, pumpkin) and colors it, then you line them up on a wall.
4. Cut out the cats once colored and tape them to the window, facing out.

Pair them with the pumpkin coloring pages for a carving-themed table, or the ghost coloring pages and bat coloring pages for a night sky wall. The owl coloring pages and spider coloring pages fit the same theme without any cat at all.

More Halloween coloring pages to go with the cats

The cats on these sheets meet a lot of other Halloween figures. If one scene catches your child's eye, there is a whole page of it elsewhere:

• The friendly scarecrow and the pumpkin patch lead to the fall coloring pages, with leaves, apples and harvest scenes.
• The full collection of Halloween coloring pages has haunted houses, costumes and trick-or-treaters.
• The candy buckets are a natural bridge to the candy coloring pages.
• For something gentle in early November, the day of the dead coloring pages show marigolds and decorated skulls.

Children who prefer dogs can follow the dog coloring pages, and fans of animated characters will find Hello Kitty coloring pages and Snoopy coloring pages with their own Halloween sheets.

Printing Halloween cat sheets at home or at school

Every drawing is a free A4 PDF at 300 dpi. On A4 paper, print at full size. On US Letter, choose fit to page in the print window: the drawing shrinks by about six percent and nothing is cut off.

To prepare a stack for October, use Add to pack under each drawing you want: the site gathers them into a single PDF, so one print job covers the whole party. The how to print guide goes through the settings step by step.

The sheets are free for home, classroom and party use, and you can print them again next year when the cats come back out with the decorations. Print the same cat twice and let two children color it differently: a black cat next to an orange one makes a good pair on a fridge door.