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Merry Christmas Calligraphy Tutorial + Free Practice Sheet

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Learn how to letter Merry Christmas with this calligraphy tutorial plus a FREE calligraphy practice sheet.

Hard to believe that this year is ending and Christmas is almost here. This means it’s time to start working on Christmas decor and cards.

See exactly  how to write “Merry Christmas” in Calligraphy in my  tutorial video  (or keep scrolling if you prefer a printable step-by-step photo tutorial):

How to write “Merry Christmas” in Modern Calligraphy:

You can find more video tutorials on our YouTube channel

To help you get into the Christmas spirit and add a handmade touch, I created this Merry Christmas  Calligraphy tutorial along with a FREE Modern Calligraphy worksheet.

Free Download

Get my free merry christmas calligraphy worksheet for beginners.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you purchase by clicking a link I might earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)!  Read my  full disclosure policy .

Remember: the only way you’ll become better at calligraphy is by practicing. And I want to help you, by providing these practice sheets.

MERRY CHRISTMAS CALLIGRAPHY TUTORIAL

In this “Merry Christmas” Calligraphy Tutorial, I will show you three ways to write Merry Christmas.

1. Merry Christmas in Faux Calligraphy

The first part of the tutorial is doing Faux Calligraphy. I always recommend learning faux calligraphy before you move on to calligraphy with brush pens or pointed fine pens. 

These Tombow TwinTone Markers are super fun to practice Faux Calligraphy. But you can use whichever pen you’d like for this first part of the calligraphy practice sheet.

If you’d like to know more about Faux Calligraphy and why you should learn it first, then check this blog post. This other blog post gives you a detailed  step-by-step tutorial on how to do Faux Calligraphy , which also has a free worksheet to help you get the basics of Faux Calligraphy down.

First, you’re going to trace the “Merry Christmas” using the pen of your choosing . Pay attention to how you move your pen, keeping in mind that when you move your pen down, you will need to add outlines to thicken the downstrokes.

Second, you’ll continue to trace the “Merry Christmas” and add the outlines to the downstrokes.

Third, complete the same steps above, and this time, fill in the outlines. That’s it! This part of the tutorial is done! You’ve created calligraphy using any pen.

2. Merry Christmas in Calligraphy with Small Brush Pens

The second way of doing “Merry Christmas” in calligraphy is by using a small tip brush pen.

The small brush pen I recommend using with this part of the worksheet is a Tombow Fudenosuke Hard Tip .

I recommend these small tip brush pens to start learning calligraphy . If you want to learn more about them, I wrote this blog post where I share the best brush pens for beginners.

Pay attention to the “Merry Christmas” sample at the top of the sheet. I broke each letter down and numbered the strokes you need to make to form the letters. Keep in mind that every time your brush pen goes down you press hard and when your pen goes up you lighten the pressure of your pen.

Using your small tip brush pen , trace over the “Merry Christmas.” You’ll do the same for every “Merry Christmas” on this page.

Print as many pages as needed for extra practice. Or print once and use tracing paper over it.

3. Merry Christmas in Calligraphy with Large Brush Pens

The last part of this calligraphy tutorial is writing Merry Christmas using a large tip brush pen .

For this part of the worksheet, I recommend Tombow Dual Brush Pen . But you can use any large brush pen of your preference.

Same as with the small brush pens, this part of the worksheet has a sample “Merry Christmas” at the top of the page with guides on how the letters are formed. You can use this for reference when you are tracing over the “Merry Christmas”.

Those are the three different ways you write “Merry Christmas” in calligraphy, using a regular pen, a small brush pen , or a large brush pen . You can get access to these practice sheets for FREE by filling out the form at the end of this blog post. 

By giving you three ways to practice with this worksheet, there is no excuse not to do it.

You can practice using all three methods, or just with the pen, you have available at the moment. 

How to use this FREE Calligraphy Practice Worksheet?

• Fill out the form at the bottom of this post to get the Free Calligraphy Worksheet.
• The worksheet will be sent to your email and you’ll be able to download it instantly. You can print it at home or at a local printer store or library. I use this inexpensive laser printer  to print mine. (This printer is black and white. But that’s all you need at the moment to print the practice sheets).
• To use any of your brush pens, make sure you print the worksheets using quality paper. The paper I recommend is HP Premium 32 Paper .
• You can use any printer paper if you are using a regular pen. 
• Set your printer scaling to “Fit Page.”

TERMS OF USE:

these worksheets and all the files contained in my resource library are for  PERSONAL  use ONLY. They are original works designed, owned, and copyrighted by Vial Designs. You can’t alter, sell, or redistribute them. Re-distributing PDFs/JPGs violates digital copyright laws. If you love these creations and want to share them, send your friends to my free resource library so they can have access too!

Where to use what you’ve learned with this Merry Christmas Calligraphy Tutorial?

The possibilities are endless!

You can do handmade cards, gift tags, wrapping paper, or any other type of Christmas Decor.

Here’s an example of a Christmas Calligraphy card you can make:

I hope you have fun practicing and learning calligraphy using these practice sheets. And most importantly, have a great Christmas and an even better holiday season.

If you’d like to keep practicing your calligraphy with other Holiday quotes, then my Holiday Lettering Printable guide will be perfect for you! It has 25 different quotes plus 3 Christmas Traceable designs.

Learn more about it here:

Have fun practicing your Holiday Lettering!

WANT TO REMEMBER THIS? SAVE THIS FREE MERRY CHRISTMAS CALLIGRAPHY PRACTICE SHEET TO YOUR FAVORITE DIY PINTEREST BOARD! 

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this is a helpful article, very nice

Thank you, Sagar! I’m glad you found it helpful!

Would love this tutorial and practice sheets

Hi Janet, The video tutorial is at the top of the page and you can fill out the form to have the free practice worksheet sent to your email. Regards, Maira

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November 18, 2023

8 top holiday literacy resources your students will love + freebies.

December is often a busy time not just in the classroom, but in our personal lives as well. That coupled with the holiday excitement that the students bring to school each day, it can feel overwhelming to manage everyone and everything. I found over the years that when I bring the holiday fun into the classroom with purposeful, engaging activities, things seem to feel a bit less chaotic. So I say let’s bring on the Polar Express, holidays around the world, and reindeer by including holiday literacy activities in lesson planning.

Today I want to share some of my favorite holiday literacy resources to add some holiday cheer to your literacy block. Additionally, many of these resources also make great displays for the hallway or your classroom.

Why I Love Integrating Literacy and Holidays

During a busy season like the holidays, you can make more time to do fun holiday activities and crafts when you get creative with how you fit them into your day. Through read alouds, shared reading, interactive notebook activities, writing crafts, and themed centers, we can easily integrate reading and writing through the season to bring holiday cheer in our classrooms while improving literacy skills.

I also love any opportunity to sneak in extra practice with writing conventions, reading comprehension, and word work. When we do activities that are truly engaging, my students don’t always realize that they are learning and practicing important skills at the same time.

Top Holiday Literacy Activities

These are some of my favorite holiday literacy activities for kinder, first, and second grades. I also sprinkled in some freebies , so be sure to check them out!

December Literacy Stations

One great way to bring holiday literacy activities to your classroom is through literacy centers. Holiday-themed literacy stations always bring cheer to your reading block time! The December Literacy Stations has seven centers for you to use this month:

• Book Making
• Sight Words
• Pocket Chart

With simple-to-prep stations, you and your students will all love these engaging activities!

Get December Literacy Stations HERE!

Gingerbread Writing Craftivity

The Gingerbread Writing Craftivity is perfect for your students to self-assess their own writing! For each writing convention, the students earn a part of their gingerbread kid. It’s a great way to integrate some meaningful writing and be purposeful with an adorable craft! Plus, the finished activity makes a great display for the holiday season.

Get the Gingerbread Writing Craftivity HERE!

Gingerbread Man Activities and Literacy Activities

With 18 different reading and writing activities for everything gingerbread, this Gingerbread Printables resource will bring a ton of fun to your literacy time! The gingerbread holiday literacy activities include retelling, sequencing, comparing different gingerbread books, a mini book, writing activities, and everything you need for a gingerbread man hunt!

Get the Gingerbread Printables HERE!

FREE Mouse and Movie Retelling Activity

After reading the book If You Take a Mouse to the Movies , use this FREE Mouse and Movies Retelling activity for students to practice sequencing. My students and I loved any chance we could to make a purposeful craft! For younger students, they can draw what happens in the book. First and second graders can write (and draw) the events.

Get the FREE Mouse and Movies Activity HERE!

Holiday Flip Books

These 19 Holiday Flip Books are perfect for your social studies or science interactive notebooks. They can be used after reading The Polar Express, after an elf visits your classroom, or as you learn about reindeer! They are also a great fit for teaching about Christmas Around the World and are a great way to integrate literacy!

Get the Holiday Flip Books HERE!

Christmas Around the World Flip Up Book Bundle

Do you teach Christmas around the world, but struggle to find a way for students to document their learning and keep up with each country’s traditions? The Christmas Around the World Flip Up Books are for you!

They are the perfect little activities for your students to be engaged as they learn about Christmas Around the World! Each flip book includes reading, sorting, and writing! It is easy to create with the printing instructions that are included.

Get the Christmas Around the World Flip Up Books HERE!

Winter Word Making Freebie

This little activity has three mystery word making activities for you to do whole group, in a small group, or even to drop in a word work center. You could also make it a competition during your holiday party. Students will use the letters provided and see how many words they can build. This activity is always a hit!

Get the Winter Work Making Freebie HERE!

Holidays Around the World Bundle

This Holidays Around the World unit helps students compare and contrast Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and Christmas. It makes it simple to learn about Kwanzaa , Hanukkah , and Christmas as you celebrate them all! You’ll easily integrate reading and writing with social studies with each of these resources.

Each resource has graphic organizers, vocabulary cards, sorting activities, and a craft. You’ll be set for social studies for the whole month with packing in lots of literacy at the same time! I bundled them together so you get all three units for the price of two!

Get the Holidays Around the World Bundle HERE!

I know the month of December can feel a little chaotic in the classroom. That’s why I like to harness the holiday excitement and integrate holiday fun into reading and writing as much as possible. All of these holiday literacy activities do just that! You can also shop my whole shop’s Christmas and holiday section of resources HERE .

Happy Teaching,

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I’m a K-1 teacher who is passionate about making lessons your students  love  and that are  easy to implement  for teachers.  Helping teachers like you navigate their way through their literacy block brings me great joy. I am a lifelong learner who loves staying on top of current literacy learning and practices. Here, you’ll find the tools you need to move your K-2 students forward!

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Using Brush Pens for Calligraphy + A Collection of Worksheets

Lindsey Bugbee

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This post has got it all: some brush pen calligraphy tips, a couple of videos, and free worksheets! Whether you are familiar with brush pens or not, this is a neat little tutorial with some icing on top.

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I have several blog posts on the TPK website that teach you how to write calligraphy with a dip pen. Today, though, I want to give the spotlight to a different tool — the brush pen! I have written a general overview of brush pens before, but today I want to focus on using brush pens for calligraphy in particular. Flexible tips, quick-drying ink, and familiarity (since you’ve probably worked with markers before) make brush pens a wonderful candidate for not only creating modern calligraphy — but also for learning how to create modern dip pen calligraphy!

What are Brush Pens?

Brush pens are, essentially, markers with a tapered, super-flexible tip. This tip is responsive to pressure, which results in thick downstrokes and thin upstrokes. I particularly love Tombow markers , and I used them for all the examples in this post. However, any marker with a flexible tip will work — I have even used a $1 package of broad tipped markers to make   “Crayola” calligraphy !

To make an upstroke, you won’t put much pressure on the pen, and the tip will look like this against the paper:

To make a downstroke, you’ll exert pressure on the pen such that more of the nib touches the paper. With that increase of pressure, the tip should bend a bit! That will look like this:

Photos are great, but sometimes it’s helpful to watch a video in order to grasp a concept. The following video provides a clearer explanation of how to exert pressure on the tip of a brush pen to create stroke variation. I want you to notice how the tip of the pen reacts as I vary the pressure on it!

Getting Creative with a Brush Pen

One neat thing about brush pens is you can dramatically vary your stroke widths! This effect isn’t easily achieved with most dip pen nibs, and that’s something that sets brush pens apart from dip pens.

The contrast in strokes makes for eye-catching pieces that also have a casual feel to them because of the marker aspect. The package pictured below, for example, utilizes Janet Style Calligraphy  to create an envelope that really stands out. This envelope only took about two minutes to make (not an exaggeration). Brush pens are low-fuss and simple to use once you get the hang of them!

Writing with brush pens is a natural, frustration-free process once you figure out how to exert pressure on the tip. To show how simple writing with brush pens can be, I created a video from above showing my hand writing. As you watch it, you can take note of hand position and pressure exertion; those are two things to pay attention to when you decide to give using brush pens for calligraphy a try!

To clarify what I say in the video about brush pens being great for lefties: I know that some lefties have a tendency to touch their hand to the paper as they write, which smears ink. However, brush pen ink doesn’t smear, so it can prove a valuable learning tool in mastering pressure and letterforms without having to focus on ink getting all over the place. As far as all calligraphy learners are concerned, brush pens are an excellent way to master the art of pen pressure exertion. Brush pens are not a prerequisite for learning dip pen calligraphy, but they can certainly prove helpful!

Brush Pen Calligraphy Resources

I eventually plan to have brush pen versions of all of the dip pen Learn Calligraphy worksheets available. At this point in time, I have two brush pen worksheets, and those are the Janet Style and the Kaitlin Style . The main difference between these worksheets and their dip pen counterparts is the size and technique difference. Letters in the brush pen worksheets are larger to accommodate a brush pen, and the instructions and letter formation arrows were designed specifically for brush pens.

I also have several free resources that you can use to practice your brush pen calligraphy. These include:

• Free Basic Brush Pen Calligraphy Worksheet
• Free Brush Pen Calligraphy Worksheet: Neat Slant Edition
• Not Your Average Brush Pen Drills Sheet

If you have any questions or input about writing calligraphy with brush pens, please don’t hesitate to comment. I hope that you found this post helpful, and that you give brush pen calligraphy a try sometime! Even if you’re familiar with dip pen calligraphy, brush pens provide a nice change of pace and can render visually compelling results.

Enjoy your weekend, and thank you very much for reading!

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