National Coloring Book Day is celebrated every year on August 2. It was started in 2015 by Dover Publications, the publisher that has been printing coloring books since the 1970s, as a day to put down your phone and pick up some crayons. In 2026 it lands on a Sunday, which is about the best possible day for it.
We obviously run a coloring site, so you'd expect us to be into this one. And yes, a publisher inventing a coloring book day is a made-up marketing holiday. But of all the made-up marketing holidays, this is one of the few we actually observe. Last year we ordered pizza, dumped every crayon in the house onto the kitchen table, and colored for an hour. The eight-year-old finished three pages. I finished half of one. Nobody checked a phone. Worth it.
Here's everything about the day, plus a pile of concrete ways to celebrate it.
When is National Coloring Book Day?
August 2, every year. It's not one of those floating "first Monday of" holidays, so it moves through the week as the years pass:
| Year | Day |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Sunday, August 2 |
| 2027 | Monday, August 2 |
| 2028 | Wednesday, August 2 |
Don't confuse it with National Coloring Day, which some calendars list on September 14, or National Crayon Day on March 31. Coloring gets three holidays. It earned them.
Where the day came from
Dover Publications created the day in 2015, right at the peak of the adult coloring book boom. That was the year Johanna Basford's Secret Garden passed a million copies sold and coloring books started showing up on bestseller lists next to novels. Dover had been publishing its Creative Haven line for adults since 2012, and August 2 became the anniversary peg for it.
The day outlived the boom. Libraries run coloring events on it every summer, and the Smithsonian Libraries has released free coloring pages from its collections for the occasion. Schools, senior centers, and bookstores have kept it going too.
If you want the deeper story on why adults ever started coloring in the first place, our benefits of coloring for adults post covers the research, and the what is an adult coloring book FAQ gives the short version.
12 ways to celebrate National Coloring Book Day
You don't need to buy anything. Most of these take under twenty minutes.
At home
- Color one full page, start to finish. The simplest celebration. Pick a page, set a timer for 20 minutes, and finish it. If you want a page that cooperates, browse our free coloring pages and pick one with big regions.
- Have a family coloring hour. Same table, different pages, snacks in the middle. Our no-fight sibling setup guide helps if you have more than one kid grabbing for the same blue.
- Host an actual coloring party. August 2 is the perfect excuse. We wrote a full how to host a coloring party guide covering invitations, supplies, and how to keep it low-stress.
- Make a DIY coloring book. Print a stack of pages, staple or bind them, and you've made someone a gift. Here's how to turn printables into a coloring book. If you're feeling ambitious, our guide on how to make a coloring book covers drawing and publishing your own from scratch.
- Color online, zero setup. No printer, no supplies, no cleanup. You can color pages free in your browser. This is our favorite option for travel days and waiting rooms.
- Finish an abandoned page. Everyone has one. The half-colored mandala in a drawer somewhere. Today is its day.
With kids
- Let the kids pick YOUR page. Kids find it hilarious to assign a dinosaur page to a parent. Lean into it; the dinosaurs category is right there.
- Do a color-swap. Everyone colors for five minutes, then passes their page to the left. Chaos, but the good kind.
- Build a summer wind-down routine around it. August 2 sits in the slow part of summer. A 10-minute quiet time coloring routine started today can carry you to the first day of school.
In classrooms and communities
- Teachers: bank pages for the fall. If you're prepping early, a classroom coloring station is one of the cheapest centers you can set up, and coloring is a reliable early-finisher activity.
- Check your library's calendar. Many libraries run coloring tables or giveaways on August 2. If yours doesn't, ask. Librarians love a low-cost program idea.
- Gift a coloring book. Grandparents especially. Coloring is genuinely good for older adults (our is coloring good for seniors FAQ explains why), and large-print, simple pages work best.
No coloring book? You have three options
The day is "coloring book day," but nobody's checking. If there's no coloring book in the house:
- Print pages free. Any page on our site downloads as a clean PDF sized for standard letter paper. If your prints come out gray or blurry, our how to print coloring pages guide fixes that in about two minutes.
- Color in your browser. Online coloring needs nothing but the device you're reading this on. Tap to fill, undo when you change your mind, save your progress.
- Make your own book. Ten printed pages and a stapler. The DIY coloring book guide has binding options ranked from "office stapler" to "actually looks store-bought."
Watch: coloring book recommendations for the day
If you'd rather celebrate by buying one great book, this roundup of ten favorites, filmed for a past National Coloring Book Day, is a good place to start:
Why a whole day for coloring books, anyway
Because coloring is one of the few calm activities with a near-zero barrier to entry. There's no skill floor, no setup, and no cleanup if you go digital. Cleveland Clinic and Mayo Clinic have both published on why it relaxes people: occupied hands, narrowed attention, low stakes. We dug into that research in the benefits post, but the day itself makes a simpler argument. An hour of coloring on a summer Sunday feels good, and most of us won't do it without an excuse.
August 2 is the excuse.
FAQ
Is National Coloring Book Day an official holiday?
No. No country recognizes it officially. It was created by Dover Publications in 2015 and spread because libraries, schools, and publishers kept celebrating it. Banks stay open. Coloring is optional but encouraged.
What's the difference between National Coloring Book Day and National Coloring Day?
National Coloring Book Day is August 2 and centers on coloring books specifically. National Coloring Day, listed on some calendars for September 14, celebrates coloring in general. In practice people color on both and nobody polices the distinction.
Do I need to buy a coloring book to participate?
Not at all. Print free pages, color online, or finish an old page. The point is twenty unplugged minutes with color, not a purchase.
What are good pages for a mixed-age group?
Pick pages with large, clear regions so nobody gets stuck. Cute animals and ocean scenes work for almost everyone, and our guide to choosing coloring pages by age has specific picks per age band.
Put it on the calendar: August 2. Then pick your page now so the day itself is all coloring, no scrolling.
