A coloring page that puts a whole Japanese December on one sheet. Santa’s sleigh and three reindeer cross the top; below them are a snowman, falling snowflakes and snow-laden pines; and on the right stands a temple bell tower, where a monk swings the beam at the bell while three children eat bowls of steaming noodles. The two large outlined shapes in the middle are the Japanese for December, 12月, read junigatsu and meaning simply the twelfth month. Free to download and print, no registration needed.
🗣 Conversation Starters — for care activities and family time
Which December or New Year’s Eve has stayed with you most clearly?
What did your household eat or set out at the end of the year?
What do you like about this time of year?
Is there anything you look forward to as one year turns into the next?
What is on this page, and why is there a temple bell next to Santa?
Two different endings to the year, drawn side by side. The sleigh belongs to 25 December, which Japan keeps as a secular winter occasion. The bell tower belongs to the night of the 31st: at midnight temples ring joya no kane, the New Year’s Eve bell, and the monk swings a suspended wooden beam at it rather than pulling a rope. It is usually explained as 108 strikes, one for each of the earthly desires said to trouble people. The children with the bowls are eating toshikoshi soba, the buckwheat noodles taken on the last night of the year; the meanings usually given are that a long thin noodle stands for a long life, and that soba breaks easily so the year’s troubles break off with it. Those are the readings the custom carries, not claims about what the noodles do.
Can this coloring page be used for care-home activities?
Yes, and this sheet is unusually useful for it, because it holds both halves of December at once. Ask what the household did on New Year’s Eve, whether anyone stayed up to hear the bell, and what was in the bowl. Sharing memories while coloring keeps the conversation going.
Any tips for a neat, polished result?
Work the large areas first and leave the fine detail until last. This page is mostly open white, so the useful decision is whether the sky is night or day: the crescent moon and stars say night, and a pale blue or grey laid behind the sleigh will make the snowflakes, the snowman and the two big number shapes stand out simply by being left unpainted. Snow is the paper, not a color.
