Australian Christmas Colouring Pages: Ideas and True Facts

The best Australian Christmas colouring pages show Christmas the way it really looks here: summer, the beach, the bush and a Santa who needs a hat for the sun. Start with a simple picture, such as our free koala page with a Santa hat drawn on, then add a true story to tell while the crayons are out. Australia has real Christmas beetles, Christmas bush, Christmas bells, a Christmas tree that grows wild in Western Australia and a whole island of Christmas crabs.

This guide is for parents, carers and teachers. Below you'll find picture ideas for each age, one true fact for each Aussie Christmas plant and animal, and a few ways to use the pages at home and in the last weeks of the school year.

Picking the right Christmas page

Christmas pictures range from one big bauble to a crowded beach scene. Match the page to the child.

Age (roughly)	What to look for	Good first picture
2 to 3	One big shape, thick lines, almost no background	A koala in a Santa hat
4 to 5	One animal with a few Christmas things around it	A sea turtle wearing tinsel, with presents in the sand
6 to 8	Full scenes with small spaces	A backyard Christmas lunch, a beach cricket game, a gum tree with decorations

A few tips that help at any age:

One picture per side. Textas soak through, so a blank back keeps the next page safe.
Add the Christmas yourself. Any animal page becomes a Christmas page with a hat, a bauble or a string of lights. Little ones love being the ones who "make it Christmas".
Skip the copycat sites. A search for free Christmas pages turns up lots of sites reposting the same pictures, some on odd web addresses. Download from the artist or publisher, and skip anything that asks you to install a program first.

Australia's real Christmas plants and animals

Here's the part most Christmas pages leave out. Several Australian plants and animals are named for Christmas because they show up, flower or turn red right on time each December. Each one makes a good picture to draw and colour next to the usual Santa and tree.

On the page	One true fact	Source
Christmas beetle	Adults come out close to Christmas and are about 2 to 3 cm long.	Australian Museum
Red crab	Each female can carry up to 100,000 eggs.	Christmas Island National Park
NSW Christmas bush	White star flowers in spring, then red in summer.	Australian National Botanic Gardens
Christmas bells	Up to 10 bell flowers on one stem, yellow to deep red with yellow tips.	Australian National Botanic Gardens
WA Christmas tree	Bright yellow flowers in summer, and roots that reach up to 110 m away.	Australian Wildlife Conservancy

Christmas beetles

Christmas beetles are chunky scarab beetles in shiny metallic brown, yellow or pink. The Australian Museum says there are 36 species, and all but one are found only in Australia. The adults munch on gum leaves, and the grubs live underground eating grass roots.

They got their name because the adults emerge close to Christmas. The same page notes that there are fewer of them than there used to be, as the grassy woodlands they need are built on. That makes them a lovely one to talk about: a Christmas visitor worth looking out for.

Colouring idea: metallic colours are hard to do with crayons, so try layering. Colour a beetle gold, then go over it lightly in brown or pink to make it shine.

Christmas Island red crabs

Australia has a Christmas Island, out in the Indian Ocean. According to Christmas Island National Park, Captain William Mynors named the island after sighting it on Christmas Day in 1643.

Its most famous residents are red crabs. Every year, millions of them leave the forest and march to the ocean to breed, usually starting in October or November. They spawn before dawn on a high tide during the last quarter of the moon, and somehow they know exactly when to set off. Roads on the island sometimes close so the crabs can cross.

The best bit for children: the baby crabs are only about 5 mm across, and it takes them around 9 days to march all the way back up from the sea.

Colouring idea: draw a road sign that says "Crabs crossing" and fill the road with red crabs. Older children can try a big crab and a line of tiny ones following behind.

Christmas bush and Christmas bells

Different states have different Christmas bushes. The Australian National Botanic Gardens explains that NSW Christmas bush has white star-shaped flowers in late spring, and then the star shapes turn red in summer, just in time for Christmas. Victorian Christmas bush flowers in white, pink or mauve.

Christmas bells grow in New South Wales and have up to 10 hanging bell-shaped flowers on one stem, from pure yellow to deep red with yellow tips. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy describes their scarlet, salmon and saffron flowers as holding their colour even in high summer heat.

Colouring idea: draw a wreath made only of Australian Christmas flowers. Red stars for Christmas bush, yellow and red bells for Christmas bells.

The WA Christmas tree

Western Australia has its own Christmas tree that grows wild: Nuytsia floribunda, covered in brilliant yellow flowers in summer. It has a surprising secret. The Australian Wildlife Conservancy explains it is believed to be the world's largest parasite: its roots reach up to 110 metres away and tap into other plants for water. It has even been found cutting through buried telephone lines.

Colouring idea: colour a WA Christmas tree in yellow and orange, then draw its long roots running off the page underground.

A summer Christmas: sun, shade and the longest day

Christmas in Australia falls just after the longest day of the year, around 21 or 22 December. Weatherzone reports that on that day Hobart gets close to 15 hours and 22 minutes of daylight while Darwin gets 12 hours and 52 minutes. Children who live in the south might notice it's still light at bedtime.

All that sunshine makes for a good colouring prompt. Cancer Council Australia's five SunSmart steps are slip, slop, slap, seek and slide: clothing, sunscreen, a broad-brimmed hat, shade and sunglasses.

SunSmart Santa

Draw Santa on the beach in his red suit.
Swap his hat for a broad-brimmed one, or add one on top.
Give him sunglasses.
Draw a beach umbrella or a big gum tree for shade.
Count the five steps together and tick each one off.

It's a fun way for a child to "fix" Santa's outfit, and it doubles as a gentle reminder for the family's own beach day.

Turn our free pages into Christmas pages

Our free set of five pages isn't Christmas themed, but two of them are easy to dress up.

Koala: add a Santa hat, a bauble hanging from the branch and a few gum leaves done in red and green.
Sea turtle: wrap it in tinsel and add a present half buried in the sand, for a beach Christmas.

If your child enjoys pairing animals with facts, our Australian animals colouring pages post has one true fact for ten favourite Aussie animals, from the koala to the quokka.

Ways to use the pages at home and in class

At home

Countdown pages. Print one page a day for the last week or two before Christmas and peg them along a string as a garland.
Card makers. Fold a coloured page in half and it becomes a Christmas card for grandparents.
Calm afternoons. The days before Christmas are big ones. A single page and a quiet corner make a good reset; our quiet activities before bed post has more ideas.

In the classroom

Real or story? Sort pictures into two piles: reindeer and elves in one, Christmas beetles, red crabs and Christmas bush in the other.
Map it. Mark Christmas Island, New South Wales and Western Australia on a map and colour each place with its Christmas plant or animal.
Then and now. Compare a snowy Northern Hemisphere Christmas card with a picture your class draws of a summer Christmas here.

When one page isn't enough

For a stocking filler, our My First Australian Animals Coloring Adventure has 30 Australian animals drawn big and bold for ages 2 to 6. Every one of them looks good in a Santa hat. You'll find it with our other titles on the books page.

Get your free pages

Start with the koala and sea turtle in our free set of five pages. They arrive as a PDF straight away, print on plain A4, and you can print as many copies as you like. Get the free pages here, add a Santa hat, and pick a Christmas beetle or red crab fact from the table above to share while you colour.

Questions and answers

Where can I get free Australian Christmas colouring pages?

SparkleBay Books has a free set of five printable pages, including a koala and a sea turtle, that are easy to turn into Christmas pages with a Santa hat or tinsel. They come as a PDF that prints on plain A4.

What is a Christmas beetle?

Christmas beetles are large Australian scarab beetles, about 2 to 3 cm long, in shiny brown, yellow or pink. They got the name because the adults come out close to Christmas, according to the Australian Museum.

What are Australia's native Christmas plants?

The best known are NSW Christmas bush, Victorian Christmas bush, Christmas bells and the WA Christmas tree. Most of them flower or turn red around December, which is how they got their names.

Why do Christmas Island's red crabs march to the sea?

Millions of red crabs leave the forest each year to breed at the coast. The migration usually starts in October or November, and the crabs spawn before dawn during the last quarter of the moon.

What age are Christmas colouring pages good for?

A single big picture with thick outlines, like a koala in a Santa hat, suits children from about two. Busy beach or bush scenes with lots of small spaces suit children of about five to eight.

Sources

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