Illuminations Coloring Pages

Lots of Small Lights Coming Together

Illuminations are lights that decorate trees and buildings with lots of tiny lightbulbs.
Each light might be small, but when thousands or tens of thousands come together, the town looks completely different at night!
In Japan, many parks, train stations, and amusement parks start put up Illuminations when winter comes.
The sun sets early in winter, so you can enjoy the lights for a long time from the evening.
People say the lights look extra clear on crisp, cold winter nights!

Write a Message inside the Heart Frame

The first coloring page shows a heart-shaped decoration made of connected lightbulbs.
Round bulbs are lined up all around the heart.
At the bottom, stars and snowflakes line up one after the other.
The inside of the heart is empty, so you can draw your favorite pictures or write your own words inside.
It is fun to write "Merry Christmas" or a nice note to your family and friends to turn it into a card!

Let's Walk Through the Tunnel of Light

The second page shows a family walking through a tunnel of light.
Lightbulbs are lined up in an arch shape, reaching far into the background.
A boy riding on his dad's shoulders is super happy with both hands in the air!
The girl next to them has her hands together, looking up at the lights with delight.
Lightbulbs are wrapped around the trees on both sides of the path, with snowflake decorations hanging down, too.

A Plaza with a Big Glowing Tree

The third page shows Illuminations in a town square that looks like Europe.
In the middle stands a big Christmas tree with a star on top.
Around it, you can see reindeer made of light, snowflake decorations, and arches of light.
There is a family walking hand in hand, and people sitting on a bench watching the lights.
Houses with snow-covered roofs stand in a row, and snow is falling from the sky.

Light Decorations Come in All Kinds of Shapes

For Illuminations, there are many styles, like wrapping lightbulbs around tree branches, making arches and tunnels, or shaping them into animals and stars.
Decorations shaped like animals, like the reindeer on the third page, look very different during the day compared to the night!
There are also Illuminations where the lights change colors or flash on and off to match music!

For light bulbs, "leave them white and color around them"

When you draw glowing light bulbs, leaving the middle of the light bulb white is the best trick!
If you add just a little yellow or orange to the edges of the light bulb, it will look like it is shining bright.
The short lines around the light bulbs on the 1st page show that the light is spreading out.
If you gently color around these lines with soft yellow, the light will look like it is glowing softly.

Color the night sky dark to make the light pop

Illuminations are night lights, so if you color the sky and dark areas with dark colors, the light bulbs will look much brighter!
Color the sky with dark blue, navy, or purple.
If you keep it a little lighter right around the light bulbs and make it darker as you go further out, it will look like the light is reaching out.
For snow-covered ground, leave it white and add just a tiny bit of the light bulb colors. That will make it look like the light is reflecting on the snow!

Try matching your light colors

Your Illuminations will look neat and put together if you decide which light colors to use.
If you use only gold and white, your Illuminations will look elegant and warm.
If you use only blue and white, you get a cool light that looks like snow or ice.
For the tree on the 3rd page, mixing red, green, and gold light bulbs makes it look lively and festive for Christmas!
If you color the people's clothes and scarves with bright colors, they will be easy to spot even in the dark night.

The "Blue Light" That Changed Illuminations

Many Illuminations today use lights called LEDs.
At first, LEDs could make red and green light, but making blue light was very hard.
Japanese researchers made it possible to actually use blue LEDs.
Once they made blue light, people could make white light and many other colors, too.
Because of this invention, Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014.

LEDs Shine with a Little Electricity

Compared to old light bulbs, LEDs can shine brightly with just a little electricity.
With old light bulbs, a lot of the electricity turned into heat.
LEDs do not waste much electricity as heat, so you can line up a lot of them without using too much power.
We can enjoy huge Illuminations with tens of thousands of lights all thanks to LEDs.

Bundle Up When You Go See Them

You usually go to see Illuminations on cold winter nights.
Like the people in the second and third pictures, bundle up with a coat, scarf, and gloves before you go out.
In crowded places, hold hands with your family so you do not get lost.
It is also fun to decorate your home with lights, together with a Christmas wreath on your door.