1. Banded glass ball
A round ornament in mirrored bands: the pattern above the middle repeats below it. Hangs from a bow on a pine bough.
Free printable · Color online
Christmas ornament coloring pages
Eight pages of Christmas ornaments: five large single ornaments, a trio hanging from a pine bough, a sheet of six small ones, and a patterned star. Each ornament has a metal cap and a wire ring, hangs from a bow, and is decorated in bands, tiles, stars or a small mandala.
Print them on letter paper or color them on screen. The large single ornaments also make good templates: color one, cut it out, and it will stand in a window or on a card.
Each page prints on one sheet of US letter paper. Under every page are buttons to print just that one, to color it on screen, or to save it as a picture.
2. Mandala ornament
A ball filled with a mandala of petals and beads. Work outward from the center, one ring at a time.
3. Long drop ornament
A tall teardrop, widest a third of the way down, striped with stars, crosses and zigzags.
4. Honeycomb onion ornament
An onion-shaped ornament with a pointed finial, covered in honeycomb. Two or three colors placed at random look like faceted glass.
5. Bell ornament in bold lines
A bell with five wide bands and large shapes, drawn with heavy outlines for markers or crayons.
6. Star ornament
A five-pointed star crossed by bands of pattern. The bands run straight across, so each point of the star gets a different slice.
7. Three ornaments on a bough
A ball, a drop and a lantern shape at three heights, with sparkles between and holly at the foot.
8. Six small ornaments
Six different shapes on one sheet, each small enough to finish in a sitting. Good for cutting out as gift tags.
Where glass ornaments come from
The glass Christmas ornament comes from the small town of Lauscha in the Thuringian hills of Germany, where glassblowers were making hollow glass balls and figures for trees by the middle of the 1800s. The insides were silvered so they would shine by candlelight.
They reached American parlors in large numbers after 1880, when the dime-store owner F. W. Woolworth began importing them. Before glass, trees were hung with what a household had: apples, nuts, paper flowers, gilded cookies and strings of popcorn. The shapes on these pages follow the old glass forms: the ball, the long drop, the onion with its pointed finial, and the bell.
Color ideas for these pages
Glass ornaments are usually one strong color with decoration in white, silver or gold. Pick a base color for the whole ornament, color every second band with it, and fill the shapes in the remaining bands with one metallic or pale accent. A white gel pen over dark pencil makes convincing frost.
To make an ornament look round, press harder near both edges and lift off toward the middle, leaving a pale stripe a little left of center as the highlight. Caps look best in gray or yellow ochre, with the wire ring left white.
Which page to start with
This set has 8 pages: 1 bold and easy, 5 medium and 2 detailed. The quickest to finish is “Bell ornament in bold lines,” with 142 areas to color, and the longest is “Mandala ornament,” with 533. Bold and easy pages have heavy lines and large shapes that suit markers and tired eyes; detailed pages have fine lines for sharp pencils or gel pens.
How printing, saving and coloring on screen work is explained on the coloring pages home. If you like filling shapes by number, Linseed Loft Color by Number is a free paint by number game with 74 pictures.