Below you’ll find an easy step-by-step tutorial for how to draw Santa Claus Video and a Santa Coloring Page. It’s a fun way to draw him, especially if it’s for the first time!

Santa Claus Drawing

A drawing of Santa Claus, made with the help of a step by step tutorial.

Santa Claus Drawing Video

The great thing about learning how to draw Santa Claus, is that pretty much every child already has an idea of what he looks like. They all know he has a white beard, bright red suit, and black belt and boots. Older and newer versions may vary a bit, but those basic features are here to stay.

Students that are just learning how to draw though, can really benefit from an example of how all those things go together. How does the beard overlap the suit? What about the hands? And how do you draw the white trim that is everywhere? Those that benefit from live examples may want to watch my Santa Claus video shown above.

This Santa tutorial includes ways to draw all those features, and keeps them simple and symmetrical. It’s the best way for new artists to draw a complete body. Drawing a Santa that is walking or holding things can come later on, after this one is accomplished. Smaller steps that help students feel more confident in their abilities is always a good way to get started.

Getting Started with Drawing Guides

The best way to get students off to a good start to any drawing lesson is to show them how to use guides as a reference point.

You may have noticed that all of the tutorials on this site have a dashed line running through the center of each step, in both horizontal and vertical directions. If students make their own centered lines on their own paper, before drawing, they will have a reference to follow.

Drawing skills are all about getting the size and placement of lines on paper, so having some visual reference point to get started, will always help anyone learn how to be a little more accurate.

So does that mean students need to get out a ruler to draw a big fat line down the center of their paper before they start? Goodness no, please don’t! That will most likely be hard to erase and distract from any finished art. No, simply fold the sheet of paper in half both ways, make a crease, and unfold. The beauty is that by the time the drawing is done and colored in, the creases will disappear.

Join “The Daily Draw” below to get this free Santa Claus download!

Santa Claus Line Art

Santa Coloring page, available as a free download.

Open the Santa Claus line art

How to Draw Santa’s Face

A drawing of a Santa's Face, made with the help of an easy step by step tutorial. — Santa Face colored with markers

Another fun Santa Claus drawing option is to focus on just his face. There’s no need to always include his arms and legs. Drawing just his head and hat will let students add more detail to those cute eyes, nose and beard. And fortunately for young artists, this Santa Claus drawing is made from some really simple shapes that are pretty easy to draw.

What media is best for my Santa Claus Drawing?

In general, it’s best to choose a media that is easier to control, like crayons, pencil crayons and markers, to keep those white things white. If you do decide to go with paint though (which would look very pretty of course) try to work large. That always helps when you want to keep colors separated.

Those that like the look of this Santa shown above will need to work with markers. I like the Stabilo Power Wallet Markers as they have lots of great colors, with the prefect tips, and even hold up pretty well when caps are left off for awhile.

The bonus of working with the Stabilo markers is that they not only make bright colors, but when layered, create the perfect shadow too. You can see an example of this above with Santa’s skin and suit. All you have to do is go over the areas that you want darker and second time, and the perfect darker shade is created. If only everything was that easy!