Nightmare Before Christmas Coloring Pages

These Nightmare Before Christmas coloring pages bring Jack Skellington, Sally and Zero to your table, free to print for the kitchen table or the classroom. Halloween Town meets Christmas Town here, and the drawings stay cute rather than creepy, with round shapes and clear outlines that small hands can follow.

Inside the collection you will find:

• Jack Skellington on his own: bowing, playing the accordion, standing on Spiral Hill under a full moon.
• Jack and Sally together, holding hands or sharing a big heart.
• Zero the ghost dog, floating, napping in his dog bed or resting beside Sally.
• Holiday scenes: carving a jack o'lantern, trick or treating, decorating a crooked tree and building a snowman.
• Title pages with the film's name in big bubble letters, ready to color.

The story behind The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a stop-motion musical released in 1993. Henry Selick directed it, and the story and characters come from Tim Burton. Danny Elfman wrote the songs and sang Jack's songs himself.

Jack is the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town. Tired of scaring people every October, he wanders into the woods, finds a door shaped like a Christmas tree and tumbles into Christmas Town. He decides to run Christmas himself, which goes about as well as you would expect from a skeleton with a coffin sleigh.

That double life is why the film is watched twice a year. It belongs to Halloween night as much as to the weeks before December, and the pages here follow both seasons.

Jack Skellington coloring pages from The Nightmare Before Christmas

Most sheets put Jack front and center. His shape is easy to read: a round skull, two big empty eyes, a stitched grin and long, thin limbs. That makes him a good first character for children who are still learning to stay inside the lines, because the large white areas forgive a wobble.

Look for Jack taking a deep theatrical bow, holding a big star under his name in bubble letters, and kneeling to pet Zero. He also stands alone on Spiral Hill, the curling hill from the film, with the full moon filling the sky behind him.

Coloring Jack the way he looks in the film

Jack's colors are simple, which leaves room for fun:

• Skull and hands: leave them white, or add a faint gray shadow along one side with a pencil.
• Suit: black with thin white pinstripes. Kids who find stripes fiddly can color the suit solid black or navy.
• Bow tie: shaped like a bat, usually black.
• Eyes: solid black ovals.

A black marker for the suit and a gray pencil for the shading give a clean result on printer paper.

Sally and Zero coloring pages

Sally is the rag doll of Halloween Town, stitched together from patches. On these pages she sews a patch while sitting on a tombstone, shares a garden bench with Zero, and holds a heart with Jack under the moon.

Her patchwork dress gives children plenty to color. Each patch can take its own color, so a child can practice pattern work: stripes in one square, polka dots in the next. In the film her skin is pale blue and her long hair is red, but any palette works.

Zero is Jack's ghost dog, with long floppy ears and a glowing orange nose shaped like a little jack o'lantern. He floats instead of walking, so his body ends in a wispy tail.

In the film his glowing nose lights the way for Jack's sleigh through the fog on Christmas Eve, a wink at Rudolph. On paper, an orange or yellow marker on the nose and a white or very pale blue body are enough to make him recognizable, and the rest of the page can stay as dark or as bright as the child likes. Children who like animals can follow him from the dog coloring pages to the ghost coloring pages, where friendly ghosts sip cocoa and rake leaves.

Nightmare Before Christmas pages for Halloween

October is when these pages get printed the most. Jack carves a smiling jack o'lantern, kneels beside a big pumpkin, and goes trick or treating in a witch hat with a candy bucket.

For a full Halloween stack, add the Halloween coloring pages, the pumpkin coloring pages and the bat coloring pages. Younger kids who prefer cute over spooky will like the Halloween cat coloring pages and the Bluey Halloween coloring pages. The spider coloring pages fit the same table.

Nightmare Before Christmas pages for Christmas and Valentine's Day

The second half of the story is about Christmas, and so is part of the collection. Jack hangs ornaments on a crooked tree with a spiral top, and he puts a carrot nose on a snowman wearing a top hat.

These sit well next to the Christmas coloring pages, the Santa coloring pages and the snowman coloring pages. For January, the winter coloring pages keep the snowy mood going.

Jack and Sally are also one of the sweetest couples in animation. Pages with Jack hugging a giant heart, or the two of them holding a heart together, make good February cards alongside the Valentine's Day coloring pages and the heart coloring pages.

Easy and detailed Jack Skellington pages

The collection mixes quick pages with a few busier ones.

Pages with Jack or Zero alone, on a white background, suit children from about four. Quick to color, the button above the grid, brings them to the front:

• Zero the Ghost Dog
• Jack Skellington on Spiral Hill
• Zero Asleep in His Dog Bed

Scenes with the full moon, the Christmas tree or Sally's patchwork take longer and suit older kids and teens who want detail. Lots of detail gathers the busier sheets:

• Jack and Sally Holding a Heart
• Jack Skellington Carving a Pumpkin

Ideas for a Nightmare Before Christmas party or classroom

1. Print a stack of Jack, Sally and Zero pages and set out black, white, orange and red markers.
2. Let each child pick a character and color it.
3. Cut the finished pages out and tape them along a wall, Halloween Town on one side and Christmas Town on the other.
4. Finish with a vote for the best Zero nose.

Finished pages also make bookmarks: cut Jack out along his long arms and glue him onto a strip of card. The star coloring pages work well as small extras for younger guests.

Printing tips

Each sheet downloads as an A4 PDF drawn at 300 dpi, at no cost. A4 printers print it at full size. On US Letter, choose fit to page in the print dialog: the drawing shrinks by about six percent and nothing is cut off. Press Add to pack under several drawings to collect them into one PDF and print them in one go. The printing guide covers the details for every browser.