Christmas Sudoku for Kids: 12 Free Printable Picture Puzzles with Answer Pages
Twelve free printable Christmas sudoku puzzles for kids, pictures instead of numbers. Grids in 4x4, 6x6, and 9x9, each with its own answer page.
It is the third week of December. The tree is up, the cards went out yesterday, and school does not start again for two weeks. Your five-year-old has asked about presents four times since breakfast, and it is only ten in the morning. The kitchen table is clear. You would like to put something quiet on it that is not a tablet.
This page has a free set of Christmas sudoku for kids, ready to print: twelve puzzles, each with its own answer page. There are no numbers in any of them. There are no letters either. Every square holds a small Christmas drawing, a candy cane, a star, a pair of mittens, so a child who cannot count yet can solve all twelve.
All twelve are the same gentle difficulty. What changes from the first page to the last is the size of the grid, not how hard the thinking gets.
Why pictures instead of numbers
A child who can tell a candy cane from a star has everything she needs to solve these grids. Sudoku was never really about numbers. The rule is that nothing repeats in a row, a column, or a box, and a drawing of a snowman obeys that rule exactly the way a 7 does.
A numbered grid asks a young child to do two jobs at once. She has to work out the logic, and she also has to read symbols she is still learning. For a four-year-old, that second job uses up most of the attention she brought to the table. Take the numbers away and only the logic is left. A picture sudoku gives her one thing to think about instead of two.
That opens the puzzle to children who usually get handed something else. A preschooler who has not started counting past five can finish a whole grid. So can a child who is learning English and would rather not read anything on a holiday morning. A child who has decided she is bad at math has no reason to decide that about gingerbread men. Picture sudoku for kids is not a simplified version of the real puzzle. It is the same puzzle with the reading taken out.
Every page in this set is also built to be solved without an adult reading it aloud. Under each grid runs a strip showing that puzzle's pictures together, side by side, so a child can see the whole set before she starts. The rule sits in one line under the strip.
How to pick the grid size
Pick by the size of the grid first and the pictures second. This Christmas sudoku for kids set runs 4x4, then 6x6, then 9x9, and each rung adds one thing.
The four 4x4 puzzles are the place to start. Sixteen squares, four pictures, and eight squares already filled in, so there are only eight to work out. Each row, each column, and each small 2x2 box needs the same four pictures once each. A four-year-old can manage one of these with a grown-up alongside. If a kids sudoku page has ended in tears before, this is the rung to go back to.
The four 6x6 puzzles are the next step: thirty-six squares, six pictures, eighteen given. The new idea is the box shape, 2x3 instead of square, so the boxes are wider than they are tall. That takes a minute to get used to and nothing more. An easy sudoku for kids is not a watered-down adult puzzle. It is a smaller board with more of the work already done.
The four 9x9 puzzles are the full-size grid adults know from the newspaper. Nine pictures, eighty-one squares, and 38 of them filled in before the child starts, which is a lot of help. A child who finishes a 6x6 without a hint is ready to try one. Expect it to take longer, and expect a few pauses with the pencil down.
The rule, in plain words
Here is the rule the way you would say it to a five-year-old. Look at one row, straight across. Every picture has to show up in it once. Not twice, not none. Now look at one column, straight down: same thing, each picture once. Now one box, inside the heavy lines: same again. So if you already see a star in a row, no other square in that row gets a star. That is all of it.
There is one solving move, and these puzzles never ask for a harder one. Pick an empty square. Look along its row, down its column, and around its box, and cross off every picture you can already see. If exactly one picture is left over, it goes there. If two are left, leave that square and find another. Every page here can be finished that way, which makes it easy Christmas sudoku rather than the kind that needs margin notes.
One tip worth passing on. Children head for the emptiest part of the grid and get stuck. Send them to the rows and boxes that are nearly full, because that is where simple sudoku for kids puzzles give up their answers fastest.
The twelve pages, one at a time
Each of these Christmas picture sudoku pages sits on its own US Letter sheet with its own background artwork. Print one, print four, or print the whole Christmas sudoku printable set at once.
The four 4x4 puzzles
Candy Canes is the page to print first. Its four pictures are a candy cane, a stocking, bells, and a star, all easy to tell apart from across the table.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
Gingerbread uses a gingerbread man, a gingerbread house, a candle, and a star. The man and the house look different enough that nobody mixes them up.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
Ice Skates is the cold-weather page of the group: an ice skate, mittens, a snowflake, and a snowman. Good for a child who is not thinking about presents.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
Presents rounds out the four with a wrapped gift, a ribbon bow, hanging baubles, and a star. A parent looking for sudoku 4x4 easy enough for a preschooler will find all four at that level.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
The four 6x6 puzzles
Toys Under the Tree opens the group with a drum, a teddy bear, a toy train, a Santa hat, a bow, and a star. Eighteen of its thirty-six squares come filled in.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
Reindeer keeps the reindeer and its sled on one page, along with bells, a star, a snowflake, and a gift. Usually an easy sell at the table.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
Snowmen has a snowman, a snowflake, mittens, an ice skate, a sled, and a Santa hat. A child who liked Ice Skates will know most of these drawings already.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
Decorations finishes the middle group with hanging baubles, a gift, a bow, a candle, a star, and a tree. For a first or second grader, these are the sudoku 6x6 easy pages to try before moving up.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
The four 9x9 puzzles
Gnomes is the first of the full-size grids. Its nine pictures are a Santa hat, a stocking, a candy cane, a gingerbread man, bells, a star, a tree, a bow, and a snowflake.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
Christmas Trees puts a tree, a star, and a gingerbread house in the same grid as bells, a candle, a bow, a gift, a snowflake, and a teddy bear. The busiest page in the set.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
Winter Deer is the only puzzle with a penguin on it. The other eight pictures are a reindeer, a sled, a snowflake, a snowman, mittens, an ice skate, a star, and a tree.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
Christmas Candles closes the set with a candle, bells, mittens, a star, a tree, a bow, a stocking, a gingerbread man, and a gingerbread house. Like the other three at this size, it will carry a quiet half hour.
Download this puzzle as a PDF — two pages, puzzle and answer key, US Letter.
Answer pages and printing
Every puzzle in this Christmas sudoku for kids set has its own answer page, which matters more than it sounds. You can hand over the solution to one grid without spoiling the other eleven, and a child can check her own work without waiting for you. Having sudoku for kids with answers also means you are never the one solving a 9x9 at bedtime.
The answer pages do one extra thing. The squares the child had to work out are tinted, and the squares that came printed on the page are left plain. A parent can glance at the key and see how much of the grid was actually solved.
Plain copy paper is all these pages need. Card stock works against you, because pencil is harder to erase from thick paper. Printable sudoku puzzles for kids get folded, erased, and carried around in a bag, so cheap paper is the right choice rather than a compromise. Print at full size on US Letter and the squares stay big enough for a child's hand.
The drawings are black and white, so a printable picture sudoku from this set costs nothing in color ink. Give a child a pencil with a working eraser instead of a pen. Wrong answers are part of how these puzzles get solved, and a child who can rub one out keeps going.
Where to go from here
Print the 4x4 and 6x6 sheets together and keep the answer pages in a separate folder so nobody reads ahead. If you are printing a printable Christmas sudoku page for a classroom, run a few extra copies of the small grids; those are the ones that come back for a second round.
The set does not expire on December 26. A child who breezes through a 6x6 in January is usually ready for a 9x9 by spring, and the 4x4 pages can be printed again next year for a younger sibling who is only now learning to match shapes. Twelve Christmas sudoku puzzles for kids and twelve answer pages will cover a long stretch of winter afternoons.
