Confession time. There’s a drawer in my kitchen holding eleven single mittens, odd ones from three kids and about four winters, and I refuse to throw any of them out because I’m sure the partners will turn up by April. They never do.
So these mitten coloring pages feel a little like revenge, a whole stack of mittens that stay put once they come out of the printer. You’ll find matching pairs, a puppy sprinting off with somebody’s mitten in its teeth, and a few with shapes big enough for brand-new crayon grips.
↓ Scroll to the free printable pagesSome of these are pure pattern, rows of dots and zigzags that look like a knitting chart someone left on the table. Others are little stories, and the animals in them clearly didn’t read the part about which paws mittens go on.
Every one of the printable mitten coloring pages below is drawn by our team and opens as a free PDF. Scroll down, pick a cuff, start there.
Featured Mitten Coloring Pages
Those fluffy mittens are clearly her proudest winter purchase, and I love how this little chibi sweetheart is showing them off! I’d give each mitten a different color, because matching pairs rarely last long in our house anyway.
I like to imagine someone popped this little lost mitten on the fence post so its owner could spot it on the way home. A bright red or rainbow pattern would certainly help, though in my experience, the missing mitten always turns up just after you’ve bought a new pair!
I think this dinosaur-covered mitten is just the thing for little ones who insist their winter woollies need a bit more roar. I’d try a bright red cuff and green dinos, but purple spots would be hard to resist!
I think a mitten makes the sweetest little home for a mouse family, though I do wonder who gets stuck sleeping in the thumb! I’d pick warm reds for their snug house and let the children dream up what these tiny neighbors are having for supper.
I have a soft spot for this little penguin knitting mittens in a cozy chair. Clearly someone is taking chilly flippers seriously! I’d give the mittens bright rainbow stripes and the chair a warm plum shade, just right for a snug afternoon.
I think this little lost mitten looks like it’s had a visit from a very curious bird! I’d give it bright rainbow stripes so its owner can spot it in the snow, then let the kids dream up where those tiny footprints lead.
Did you love these mitten pages?
Winter Collections
Mitten Coloring Pages Highlights
Matching Pairs of Mittens
Twelve mittens sit in neat rows, six pairs in all, and each pair has its own pattern: hearts, zigzags, stars, polka dots, wavy stripes and snowflakes. The file name spells out the job, color both mittens in a pair exactly the same.
Sounds simple. It isn’t, quite, because a five-year-old has to carry a plan from one mitten over to its twin. Kindergarten centers love it, and siblings can split the six pairs without a single argument over who gets the snowflakes.
Mitten-Shaped Mandala
A row of small circles sits across the top, then a big flower blooms in the middle with diamonds on either side, and a band of triangles runs just above the cuff. Even the thumb gets a few circles of its own.
It works like a drum pattern… circle, circle, circle, and then that flower lands like a cymbal crash. Simpler than the grown-up mandala books, with shapes big enough for a regular colored pencil, it suits seven and eight-year-olds who want patterns without a marathon.
Cozy Cabin Scene Mitten
A whole winter night fits inside this mitten: a crescent moon, a scatter of tiny stars, a snowcapped mountain, pine trees and a little cabin with smoke curling out of the chimney. Snow drifts roll along the bottom, right where the ribbed cuff begins.
Perhaps the coziest page in the set. The tiny cabin window and the skinny trees suit older kids with sharp pencils, and a row of these on a December bulletin board looks wonderful because no two kids color the night alike.
Mouse Family in a Mitten House
Somebody’s lost mitten has become a house, complete with a chimney puffing smoke, a round window up top, an arched front door and a side window with a flower box. There’s even a stitched patch on the thumb.
Four mice stand on the stepping-stone path out front, two grown-ups and two little ones. It’s the busiest page here, so it suits first and second graders, and it’s lovely right after a winter read-aloud.
Penguin Sliding on Ice in Striped Mittens
Flippers flung wide, beak open in a huge grin, this penguin is skidding across a patch of ice in striped mittens that are clearly a few sizes too big. His feet stick straight out in front.
Preschoolers start giggling before they’ve even picked a crayon. The mitten stripes are wide enough to fill one at a time, which keeps the page friendly for ages three to five.
Puppy Running Off With a Mitten
Ears flying, legs mid-gallop, a puppy is making a getaway with a zigzag mitten clamped in his mouth. Anyone who owns a dog has watched this exact scene from the back door.
If your kid wants a printable mitten coloring page with a little thief in it, start here. The shapes are big and round, good for ages four and up.
Raccoon Wearing Mittens on All Four Paws
Front paws, back paws, every one of them in a cuffed mitten, and a fat striped tail curling up behind. With his little mask and that pleased smile, he looks ready for a long walk in the snow.
Does a raccoon need mittens on his feet? No idea. He seems certain, though, and kids in kindergarten through second grade find the whole idea hilarious.
Simple Preschool Mitten With Big Dots
One big mitten, a chunky ribbed cuff and about ten round dots scattered across the front. Nothing else.
Lily pressed her marker into every dot and wiggled it in circles until each one was a solid blob, which counts as finished in her rulebook. Out of all the coloring pages of a mitten in this set, this is the one I’d give a toddler first.
8 Tips for Coloring Mittens
Color Each Matching Pair Back to Back
On the matching page, finish one heart mitten and go straight to its twin with the same crayon, before your hand drifts to a new pressure. Come back to the second one later and it almost always comes out paler.
House painters handle this with a trick called boxing, pouring every can of one color into a big bucket so no wall comes out a shade off. Latvians have a saying about things that fit together like a hand and a mitten, and a Latvian bride once filled a whole dowry chest with pairs to hand out to her new in-laws.
Two Colors per Band on the Mandala
Fair Isle knitters, named for a tiny island in Shetland, only work two colors in any single row, even when the finished mitten shows six or seven. Borrow that rule for the mandala mitten, one color for the circles in the top row and one behind them, then a fresh pair for the flower band.
It keeps the page from turning into a crayon free-for-all. Carry one color down from each band into the next, and the whole mitten hangs together like real knitting.
Save the Striped Thumb for Last
The mitten with stripes, dots and zigzags has diagonal stripes on the thumb that slant a different way from everything else. Knitters have a method called the afterthought thumb, where they knit in a strip of scrap yarn in a contrasting color and pull it out later to add the thumb.
So color that thumb last, in a shade that shows up nowhere else on the mitten. It reads as a choice, like someone pulled out the scrap yarn and knitted a bright surprise in its place.
Draw Tiny V’s on the Cabin Mitten
The file name says the cabin scene is knitted on, so make it look knitted. A single knit stitch looks like a small V, which means rows of little V’s in a fine-tip marker one shade darker than the crayon underneath turn a flat mountain into wool.
Leave the moon and the cabin door smooth so they stand out from the stitches. Kids who love fiddly work will happily stitch the whole snowfield, and the rest can stop at the mountain.
Keep the Mouse House White Like Baba’s
This page borrows from an old Ukrainian folktale, best known from Jan Brett’s picture book The Mitten, where Nicki’s grandmother Baba knits him snow-white mittens and he drops one in the snow. Teachers hunting for coloring pages for The Mitten can leave the house white and let the color land on the door, the flower box and the mice.
Then give the stitched patch on the thumb a loud color of its own, since mended mittens never match. In the book, a whole crowd of animals stretches that mitten until a mouse makes a bear sneeze, so a patch seems only fair.
Turn the Owl Into a Great Horned Owl
The owl wearing mittens has a scalloped belly made of curved rows, and real great horned owls wear fine bars across their fronts. Alternate a warm brown row with a cream row from the chest down, and add a white patch at the throat.
Those two pointy tufts on its head aren’t ears, they’re feathers, and the real ears are hidden openings on the sides of the face. Color the tufts the darkest brown on the page and give the big round eyes a golden yellow.
Give the Puppy a Beagle Coat
The puppy with the stolen mitten has long floppy ears, so try a classic beagle coat: tan head and ears, a black patch over the back and white on the chest, paws and tail tip. Beagles kept that white tail tip, the story goes, so hunters could spot them bobbing through tall grass.
Leave the tail tip as bare paper and press the black patch hard so the white pops. Then color the stolen mitten to match a pair from the matching page, and somebody’s twin has officially gone missing.
Mismatch the Raccoon’s Four Mittens
Raccoons don’t truly hibernate, they hole up in a den through the worst cold snaps and live off fat they stored in fall. This one clearly went out anyway, so he needs every mitten he can get.
Give each paw a mitten in a different color and pattern, as if he raided the school lost-and-found. After all that careful matching on the pairs page, a deliberately mismatched set feels like recess.