This little coloring book is big on holiday fun! It’s a really convenient size for me, so I can color (fairly discreetly) anywhere. There are all sorts of Christmas designs, from gingerbread treats, to fireplace scenes, to sleigh rides in the snow, to Christmas trees, to even “ugly sweater” patterns.

They’re all really fun, and fairly easy to color. You’ll want a sharp pen or pencils, since the reduced size means some coloring areas are pretty small. I plan on cutting out several of these, gluing them onto some folded cardstock, and sending them as hand-colored Christmas cards!

This lovely holiday coloring book comes in two parts. The first is 30 full-color prints of famous vintage illustrations from the famous Saturday Evening Post. Artists include Rockwell, Leyendecker, Sargent and more. All are truly wonderful, bring back a warm nostalgia on cold winter nights. Many would make wonderful framed decor for the holidays.

Those examples may serve as guides for coloring the other half of the book, which offers simple yet well-drawn coloring pages, in the same order as the colored prints. For me, looking back and forth, I find that many of the coloring areas require several colors, and colored blends, to more carefully match the originals, yet for me, that just adds to the fun. A great pre-holiday gift to help get into the Christmas spirit!

When I was little, I imagined that someday I’d make elaborate gingerbread houses each Christmas. Now that I’m older, I find I have little time while helping make Christmas special for everyone else. Plus, my gingerbread housing developments haven’t always passed inspection, to be honest.

But I’d still like to get some holiday crafting in, and make something special for everyone to see when they come over. So that’s why I have been so delighted with this 3-D paper cut-out model of Santa’s Workshop. The house has many parts and levels, all of which need to be cut out and carefully attached to one another. It isn’t really a project for young children, but they sure love to see it. The workshop is printed with cute illustrations, inside and out, so it’s like a fun little doll house to look inside and enjoy — especially while imagining all those elves making presents for Christmas Day!