Zombie Coloring Pages

These zombie coloring pages are free to print, and every zombie on them is the friendly kind. They wave at garden gates, bake cookies, blow out birthday candles and hug scarecrows. Nothing drips, nothing chases anyone, and the scariest thing on the paper is a crooked smile with a few stitches.

Here is what the collection holds:

• Halloween zombies: trick or treating with a jack o'lantern bucket, carving a pumpkin, stirring a cauldron, a zombie girl in a witch hat.
• Zombies all year round: decorating a Christmas tree, carrying an Easter basket, holding a heart balloon, building a snowman or a sandcastle.
• Zombies with jobs: a chef, a farmer feeding chickens, a scientist mixing potions, a pirate at the ship wheel, an astronaut among the stars.
• Zombie pets: a stitched zombie kitten on a fence and a zombie puppy running off with a bone.
• Big and simple: a face portrait, a single zombie with a lantern, a hand rising from the ground holding a daisy.

Friendly zombie coloring pages for little monster fans

A zombie here is a cartoon character first. The faces have round eyes, small stitched patches and messy hair, and most of them are smiling. That matters for younger kids, who like a spooky theme as long as the character on the page looks friendly.

The graveyard pages are the closest the collection gets to a chill. Three zombies walk arm in arm through a cemetery under a full moon, another climbs out of an ivy covered tomb, and one sits on a tombstone feeding crows. Even those read as a stroll at night rather than a fright.

If your child is very sensitive, start with the zombie chef, the heart balloon or the snowman page. They have nothing of Halloween about them.

What is a zombie, anyway?

The word zombie comes from Haitian folklore, where it described a person brought back without a will of their own. Over the last century, books, cartoons and games turned the idea into a shuffling character with arms held out, and that is the version most kids recognize today.

On these pages the zombie keeps only the recognizable parts: the stitches, the patched clothes, the slow walk and the green skin that kids love to color. Everything else is borrowed from ordinary life, which is what makes them funny. A zombie throwing a graduation cap in the air is a joke a six year old gets right away.

Kids who enjoy the look of these characters often move on to the monster coloring pages, where friendly creatures with horns and big teeth get up to the same kind of mischief.

Zombie coloring pages for Halloween

October is when most families print zombies, and the Halloween sheets are made for it:

1. A zombie trick or treating with a jack o'lantern candy bucket.
2. A zombie girl in a witch hat holding her pumpkin bucket.
3. A zombie carving a smiling jack o'lantern.
4. A zombie chef stirring a bubbling cauldron.
5. A zombie hugging a scarecrow in a cornfield.

They sit well next to the rest of the season. The Halloween coloring pages cover witches, haunted houses and costumes, the pumpkin coloring pages give you jack o'lanterns of every shape, and the ghost coloring pages and bat coloring pages fill in the night sky. For cat lovers, the Halloween cat coloring pages put black cats in witch hats and pumpkin patches.

Zombies for every other holiday

A zombie works in any season, and the collection proves it. There is a zombie putting a star on a Christmas tree and another carrying a big present in a Santa hat, which pair well with the Christmas coloring pages. In spring, a zombie girl holds a basket of Easter eggs, a nice odd one out among the Easter coloring pages.

For February, the zombie with a heart balloon and the zombie bride with her bouquet suit a class card table next to the Valentine's coloring pages. The zombie blowing out candles on a cake turns any happy birthday coloring pages stack into a party for a monster fan, and the graduation zombie belongs with the graduation coloring pages in June.

Easy zombie coloring pages and busier ones

Most sheets are drawn with thick outlines and big open shapes, so a preschooler can color them with chunky crayons. Each zombie fills most of the page, and the background stays light, which keeps a small hand from getting lost. Quick to color, the button above the grid, brings the plainest pages to the front:

• Zombie Kitten on a Fence
• Zombie Feeding Crows
• Zombie Building a Sandcastle

Older kids can go for the scenes with more going on: the pirate at the ship wheel, the zombie on a bike racing downhill, the farmer by the chicken coop and the tomb covered in ivy. Lots of detail gathers those pages:

• Zombie Pirate at the Ship Wheel
• Zombie Girl with an Easter Basket
• Zombie Riding a Bike

Colors that make a zombie look like a zombie

There is no official zombie palette, so kids can do anything they like. A few combinations work well.

Skin, clothes and hair

• Skin: pale green, gray green or a soft lavender. A light marker first, then a pencil for the cheeks.
• Stitches and patches: one bright color per patch, so the clothes look mended from odds and ends.
• Hair: dark green, black or purple, left a little uneven.
• Night scenes: a dark blue sky with a yellow moon makes the graveyard pages glow.

Finishing touches

Glow in the dark crayons or a silver gel pen on the moon and stars are a fun touch for October.

Zombie games, movies and other worlds to color

Many kids know zombies from games. The zombies on this page are original drawings made for this site. Fans of the game will find the peashooters, sunflowers and lawn zombies in the Plants vs. Zombies coloring pages. Players who meet zombies in the night of Minecraft coloring pages can print creepers and blocky worlds as well.

For a gentle spooky movie mood, the Nightmare Before Christmas coloring pages bring Jack Skellington, Sally and Zero, and they look great colored side by side with a stack of zombies.

Printing zombie pages for a party or a classroom

Every sheet is a free A4 PDF at 300 dpi. A4 prints at full size. On US Letter, choose fit to page: the drawing shrinks by about six percent and nothing is cut off. The how to print guide shows where that setting hides in common browsers.

To prepare a Halloween party table, tap Add to pack under each drawing you want and get them all in a single PDF. A few ideas:

• Give each child a different zombie and let them name it.
• Cut out the finished zombies and tape them to a window as a parade.
• Turn the face portrait into a mask by cutting out the eyes and adding a stick.

The pages are free for home, classroom and party use, so run off a copy for every guest.