The Night Before Christmas Coloring Book

The media could not be loaded.        This great coloring book is filled with beautiful illustrations to go along with the famous Christmas poem. The pictures are heavily detailed and shaded, so coloring in larger swathes seems to work better than trying to get in and do a single detail at a time. What is kind of cool about this is that you can use a single color over the gray scale and it comes out looking like you spent some time adding detailed shading.The designs are printed on both sides of the paper and some of the designs spread across two pages. All of the designs (including the two page spreads) stop before they reach the bound edge. The binding is glued rather than sewn. You can cut the pages out with a penknife if you wish to, but for me, I will consider this a color book that stays together. I was able to press hard on the spine and get the book to lay flat.All of my markers and gel pens bleed-through on this paper. My coloring pencils work great (especially the soft core ones), so I will only be using pencils to finish this book.I love the illustrations with the jolly Santa (especially the one with him upside down in the chimney.) It brings back the fun of the holiday I had as a child. I can imagine my husband and I coloring this book each year as we head into the holidays. I'm finding that by not being too detailed, the coloring is going very fast. I'm going to finish this one in color pencils but I may buy another one next year to experiment with pastels.

First of all, the cover art on this book is beautiful and whimsical! There is a sample colored picture inside the front cover to serve as inspiration. There is no bookplate page, but while I generally love such a page, it is not missed in this book. The title page has a very nice jack-in-the-box image to practice on if you wish, with supplemental drawings that spill over onto the back of the previous page. Next, there is a nice blurb about the poem and author of the poem (and more drawings to color if you wish). Finally: the unusual and strangely beautiful drawings to color and each page contains some of the poem. Some have been upset at the heavier than usual dark lines/shading. I actually liked this! It gives an "old world" feeling. It challenges you to think and brings satisfaction even as you work on it. However, I will say that I have already discovered pastels to be my weapon of choice to fill in the large areas such as night sky and wallpaper. I feel it is a magical book and that I got my value for it.

This little coloring book is a well known, fun story book by John O’Brien for Dover. For $5.99 ... its a steal!It is 2 sided, very grey shaded, and takes pencil crayons very well. The little house was done with Polychromos, and the red night shift man was done with Prismacolor.The paper is quite nice, semi-smooth, about 40 ish pound.Beautifully drawn, and a great buy.My husband says he thinks the colored pages look like they belong in the book as a pre-colored page!

I cannot wait to color this! It’s fine that it’s printed on both sides because i think pencil is definitely the way to go so both sides is no biggie for me. I love this type of greyscale. When you color it, it’s just beautiful! i may even buy another to give to someone who just had a baby. i think a personally colored book with a child’s christmas poem classic is an adorable gift

Originally published in 1981, lively graphics in this $4.99 Dover reprint broke with traditionally staid versions of The Night Before Christmas. Artist John O'Brien's whimsical rendition is very entertaining.The drawings are done in inky grayscale strokes with a vintage-style darkness. The ivory paper is medium weight, smooth and printed on both sides. To get bright colors, strongly pigmented media are needed. Wet media are not recommended.

This is a great book even if you don't color it. I'll definitely have to practice my shading. Like it very much. I bought for my great granddaughter because of the story and pictures. She's not ready to color but she'll enjoy it anyway. I bought one for myself and read the book to her and now she has most of the story memorized.

I bought two of this, one for myself (I haven't colored in it yet), and one for a friend who loves to color w/ colored pencils, like I do. She absolutely loved it, and couldn't wait to get it home to try. And we are both in our 50s.Just look at the "Look Inside" to see the pictures; this is what you will get and it is truly adorable and whimsical. Obviously not a coloring book for small children but for anyone else, a great Christmas gift.

Our family is enjoying this coloring book so much! We take turns with it while sitting at restaurant tables waiting for our meal, or relaxing in the evening, or one of us grabs it and colors when a free moment pops up. It's lovely & fun & a bit whimsical. The drawings *are* heavily shaded, but colored pencils are perfect for them. In fact, with a pencil you can layer color or give a hint of color even in the darkest areas. We haven't tried pastels yet, though they might work well. Whatever you use, it needs a fine point.

This colouring book by the excellent Dover publishers is an absolute joy.The Night Before Christmas (Dover Holiday Coloring Book) has the wonderful poemby Clement C. Moore.‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house,Nothing was stirring not even a mouse’.BUT John O'Brien has done what I can only describe as fabulous with his art work to accompany this classic and well-loved poem.The result a perfect match of poetry and art.The art work is simply outstanding. John O’Brien has illustrated the poem with wonderful drawings that have fabulous shadings. When you add colour to the background the pictures are revealed in all their glory.A wonderful match of O’Brien’s sketch with your skill at colouring.Dover produces some wonderful colouring books.I have received and have used many.This is simply one of the best.Now some advice and information.Dover really is focused on saving the planet and the paper that they use is recycled- saving trees and planting others. So there is a trade-off with the quality of the paper.This book does not have the usual boast (which is to be lauded) of the amount of recycled content and saved trees that Dover usually place on the rear of their other colouring books.But I still believe you would be better with coloured pencils rather than paints or pens as both will bleed and actually go through the pages.The paper is not robust and the siren's call of the photocopier set to 131% beckons.Secondly, the book is a fabulous ‘story’ book for primary teachers.I would have loved gathering my class around sat on the reading mats and have read this to my class.The poem is terrific the art work really does match the brilliance of the poem.Totally 100 and 1 per cent recommended.A Perfect Match- Wonderful Poem -Fabulous Artwork.

I love this book not colour in it yet but I will before the new year

my kids was going crazy for these books when i brought them last year and spent all Christmas time colouring it in. lovely item

Wonderful Christmas book far better than other recent ones I won't mention that don't have the Christmassy themes and sets

This is a super book for an adult/ older child to colour and then it becomes a lovely Christmas story to read to small children each year.