A tall panel filled with small Christmas drawings scattered at random, and a key down the right hand side listing each one with an empty box beside it. Find every tree, every star, every mug of cocoa, and write how many there are. Eight pictures to count by default.
How the sheet is built
The field is laid out so that no two drawings overlap and none of them is clipped by the edge of the panel. That sounds obvious, but it is where most I spy sheets fall down: once pictures sit on top of each other the counts stop being checkable and the child is being asked to guess.
The counts sit close together, so a child has to count each picture properly rather than see at a glance which one there is most of. The key beside the field shows each drawing at a readable size with a box for the total.
Six, eight or ten pictures
Six makes each drawing larger and the field easier to scan, which suits a four or five year old. Eight is the default and is the right balance for most of primary school. Ten packs the field and turns it into a proper search, closer to a puzzle than a counting exercise.
The pictures themselves are drawn from the site's Christmas artwork: trees, stars, bells, angels, baubles, candy canes, gingerbread houses, mugs of cocoa and more. They are line art, so the sheet can be coloured in once it has been counted.
The counts on the answer sheet are the real counts
The second page carries the same key with every total filled in red, and the totals match the field above them. They are the counts for the sheet in front of you rather than for some standard version of it.
That matters because every sheet is different. Reload the page or press Regenerate and the field, the pictures chosen and the totals all change together.
Questions
- How many pictures do you have to find?
- Eight by default, listed down the right hand side with a box for each count. The Pictures control above the paper changes it to six for younger children or ten for a longer search.
- Is the Christmas I spy sheet free to print?
- Yes, free to print and free to save as a PDF, with no account needed and no watermark. You can print as many copies as you like for a class, a party or a car journey.
- Are the answers included?
- Yes. The second page repeats the key with the true total written beside each picture in red. The totals are taken from the sheet itself, so they are right for the copy you printed.
- Do the pictures overlap?
- No. Every drawing is placed with clear space around it and none are cut off at the edge of the panel, so each one can be counted without being hidden behind another.
- What age does this suit?
- From about four, with the setting at six pictures and an adult reading the key. At eight or ten pictures it holds the attention of a seven to nine year old, who will usually start marking off what they have counted.