Gingerbread Cookie Coloring Page

About this coloring page

A gingerbread cookie shaped like a little figure, with icing buttons, an icing smile and a bow, next to one gingerbread star. The icing details are drawn as separate shapes rather than lines, which matters: a child can color the buttons and the trim without needing any accuracy, and the picture still looks piped rather than scribbled. Brown is the expected answer for the body and it is worth doing at least once, because the white icing only works against it. After that, a gingerbread cookie in any color at all is a perfectly good outcome and children usually find it funnier. The star gives somewhere to go next once the figure is finished. It is a good page to print alongside actual baking, since the shapes match the cutters most people own. It prints small without losing its outlines, so two will fit on one sheet if you are producing a stack for a group rather than a single page for one child. On ordinary copier paper crayon and pencil both behave; a felt tip will spread slightly at the icing edges, which is not a disaster but does soften the piped look the drawing is going for. A gingerbread man coloring sheet printed on card survives being handled and hung on a tree, which ordinary paper does not once it has been colored heavily.

Color suggestions

• Warm brown body
• White icing trim and buttons
• Red bow
• Leave the icing unfilled for contrast

Did you know?

• Shaping gingerbread into little figures is credited to the court of Elizabeth the First, where they were reportedly baked to resemble visiting dignitaries and presented to them.
• Gingerbread keeps for months because sugar and honey both hold on to water, which stops the dough drying out and makes it inhospitable to mould. It is why gingerbread houses survive a whole season on a shelf.