Toy Train Set Under A Christmas Tree Coloring Page

A toy steam engine runs along its track in front of a Christmas tree, pulling a tender, a boxcar marked with a circled letter and an open sided carriage behind it. The engine is drawn like a real model, with a ribbed boiler, a bell, a headlamp, spoked driving wheels and a slatted plate across its nose.

The tree is heavy with round baubles hung in rows along every branch, and a five pointed star tops it off. Two wrapped parcels with big soft bows sit beside the rails.

What makes this page unusual is its background. Rather than empty paper, the entire space behind the tree is filled with a dense scatter of small festive objects: more baubles, snowflakes, bows, curls of ribbon, candy, flowers, stockings and little parcels, every one outlined and none of them touching. It reads as patterned wallpaper.

Handle that field as a pattern and not as a picture. Repeating three or four colors across it in no particular order gives a result that looks deliberate, and it stops your eye wandering away from the train, which is still the centerpiece.