How to Draw Santa: Step by Step Drawing

Learn how to draw Santa: one easy Santa drawing in a long robe and one awesome Santa with a bag full of Christmas presents and many fancy details.

How to Draw Santa: Step by Step Drawing - step-by-step-drawing tutorial featured image
How to Draw Santa: Step by Step Drawing - step-by-step-drawing tutorial featured image

Today we will learn how to draw Santa. Our first Santa drawing is as simple as it gets: closed eyes and a long coat mean no eyes or legs to draw! But with the “trademark” features – Santa’s hat, gloves, large moustache and beard – you will still end up with a very recognisable and cute Santa character.

Here is another way how to draw Santa. The second Santa has a full body, an interesting pose and many fancy details, including a sack full of Christmas presents. With a little extra work, we get a much nicer and fancier Santa drawing.

This tutorial is part of our “Christmas drawings” collection.

min

You will need: pencil, fineliner pen, colored pencils, eraser and drawing paper or sketchbook

These are the favorites we use for drawings on Let's Draw That that we love and recommend:

Staedtler Mars Lumograph Pencil Set With Eraser and Sharpener or Staedtler Mars Lumograph Pencil & Fineliner Set With Eraser and Sharpener, Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils, Moleskine Sketchbook 

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Watch the video here, or scroll below for the step-by-step instructions.

How to draw Santa: an easy Santa drawing

How to draw Santa: finished easy Santa outline drawing
How to draw Santa: finished easy Santa outline drawing

Our first Santa drawing is as easy and simple as it gets: closed eyes and a long coat mean a very simple body shape and no eyes or legs to draw! But by drawing the “trademark” features – Santa’s hat, mittens, large moustache and beard – you will still end up with a very recognisable and cute Santa character.

How to draw Santa: an easy Santa drawing sketch

Step 1: Sketch the base head shapes

Drawing step: Sketch the base head shapes
Drawing step: Sketch the base head shapes

Start drawing the Santa from the head. First, draw a large oval for Santa’s face. Add another small oval inside for Santa’s large and round nose.

Next, add the beard. Start drawing about a quarter down from the top of the head to leave some space for the hat. Draw the beard as a heart shape – two curves meeting in a point. (We have a simple how to draw a heart tutorial if you want some practice.)

Well, that is a lovely beetroot right there. Err, Santa’s head I mean…

Step 2: Draw Santa’s face

Drawing step: Draw Santa’s face
Drawing step: Draw Santa’s face

Let’s add details to Santa’s face. Start with the moustache – draw two curved lines from the middle of the nose, one on each side, all the way just a touch out from the beard outline. Then close the moustache with curves coming back on each side.

Next, add two simple upside-down “U” curves for the eyes – that is the easiest way to draw closed eyes. Now draw two small ovals above the eyes, slightly tilted out, for the eyebrows.

And finally, sketch just a simple “C” curve for the mouth.

Step 3: Draw Santa’s hat

Drawing step: Draw Santa’s hat
Drawing step: Draw Santa’s hat

Now for Santa’s hat. Let’s start with the bottom fur rim. First, draw the two short sides up from where the beard joins the head. Then join the sides with two curved lines to draw a wide bent rectangle.

Next, draw the top of the hat: first the left side, with a nice swoop from the rim up to the centreline of the head. The right side is shorter and points just below the end of the left line.

Then add the pompom on the side – a simple oval. Join it to the hat with two lines – the top line meets the pointy top of the hat, while the lower one ends halfway up the right side.

Step 4: Draw Santa’s body

Drawing step: Draw Santa’s body
Drawing step: Draw Santa’s body

Well, the head was pretty simple to draw, but watch this: A really easy way to draw Santa’s body is to draw him dressed in a long winter coat that goes all the way down to the ground. That saves us from drawing Santa’s legs!

Draw the body as two slightly curved lines, starting just under the moustache, and going all the way to the ground. Then close the bottom of the coat with a slightly curved line. Now our Santa has become a bowling pin.

Let’s at least give him some arms: draw two curved lines out from the shoulder just above the moustache. From the elbows, draw two lines bent back to the body. Done!

Step 5: Draw Santa's mitten gloves and shoes

Drawing step: Draw Santa's mitten gloves and shoes
Drawing step: Draw Santa's mitten gloves and shoes

Let’s add the final details: First, draw the fur coat cuffs. They are the same bent rectangles as the rim on Santa’s hat, just smaller in size. Then draw the mittens – one small “U” arc at the top for the thumb, and a larger “U” for the hands.

Next, add a rim at the bottom of the coat – you should be getting professional at drawing that bent rectangle shape by now.

And finally – draw Santa’s feet sticking out from underneath the coat – just two simple “U” curves again pointing sideways.

Draw some christmas presents:

How to Draw a Present With a Nice Ribbon Bow - step-by-step-drawing tutorial featured image

How to Draw a Present With a Nice Ribbon Bow

Learn how to draw a present - a box with a lid from an interesting angle, wrapped with a ribbon tied into a fancy bow.

How to draw Santa: an easy Santa drawing outline step by step

Step 1: Draw Santa's face

Drawing step: Draw Santa's face
Drawing step: Draw Santa's face

With the sketch done, let’s outline our drawing. Start with the face: draw the two ovals for the eyebrows, then the eyes and eyes and nose.

We have improved the simple single line mouth into a nice, wide laugh – so draw that one next.

Last comes the moustache, because it is now hiding behind the mouth. Now, that does not work in the real world, does it? But this is a cartoon drawing and the mouth looks better that way – we can draw whatever we like!

Step 2: Draw Santa’s hat and beard

Drawing step: Draw Santa’s hat and beard
Drawing step: Draw Santa’s hat and beard

Now outline Santa’s hat. Notice the bottom line is broken up for the eyebrows – another “catoonification” with eyebrows flying up in the air. Also, we have sightly narrowed Santa’s face compared to the sketch.

The beard outline is again broken up for the moustache, as that sits on the top of the beard.

Step 3: Draw Santa's arms and mittens

Drawing step: Draw Santa's arms and mittens
Drawing step: Draw Santa's arms and mittens

Let’s keep moving down outlining the Santa drawing. Draw the coat sleeves and the cuffs from the sketch, slightly rounding off the elbows.

Watch out when drawing the mittens – one glove hides behind the other, so leave the hidden part out.

Step 4: Draw Santa's coat and shoes

Drawing step: Draw Santa's coat and shoes
Drawing step: Draw Santa's coat and shoes

No tricks or overlaps in this step, so just simply outline the coat – the fur rim and sides – as well as Santa’s shoes directly from the sketch.

Step 5: Add final details

Drawing step: Add final details
Drawing step: Add final details

Well, our Santa drawing is complete, but we thought we surely can make the jolly man even happier. All it takes is a few simple lines here and there:

Add two small lines on the face – one for the cheeks and one for laughter wrinkles under the eye.

Draw some lines around the tummy and just under the pompom – and Santa is all shaking with laughter. Ho, ho, ho!

Draw a Christmas tree next:

Christmas Tree Drawing: From Easy to Awesome! - step-by-step-drawing tutorial featured image

Christmas Tree Drawing: From Easy to Awesome!

Master drawing Christmas trees. An easy tree made of triangles turned into a beautiful Christmas tree drawing with a simple trick.

How to draw Santa: finished easy Santa drawing

How to draw Santa: finished easy Santa outline drawing

How to draw Santa: finished easy Santa outline drawing
How to draw Santa: finished easy Santa outline drawing

Here is the finished easy Santa drawing after the usual final clean-up, once you go over the drawing lightly with an eraser to remove any extra sketch lines.

This is it – that is the easiest way how to draw Santa. For a simple beetroot head bowling pin chap he looks pretty good, I say!

How to draw Santa: easy Santa drawing coloured-in

How to draw Santa: easy Santa drawing coloured-in
How to draw Santa: easy Santa drawing coloured-in

This Santa is not only easy to draw, but also to colour in. The hat and coat are all a nice bright red.

Santa’s moustache, beard, hat pompom and all of the coat and hat rims are white. Since white or no colour would look too flat, we have used the trick from drawing a snowman – adding some shaded areas around the edges in light blue.

Finally, the mittens and shoes are dark yellows – that could be the leather colour. It also adds some nice contrast to the drawing.

How to draw Santa: an awesome Santa drawing with many details

How to draw Santa: finished outline drawing
How to draw Santa: finished outline drawing

Now that you have warmed up, let’s try another way how to draw Santa. The second Santa has a full body, an interesting pose and many fancy details: nicer scruffy bears, fancy shoes and belt and carries a sack full of Christmas presents. While there is little extra work to add the details, the drawing is still very easy and we get a much nicer and fancier Santa drawing.

How to draw Santa: base sketch step by step

Step 1: Sketch the base body shape

Drawing step: Sketch the base body shape
Drawing step: Sketch the base body shape

OK, here we go. Remember that bowling pin from our easy Santa? Here it is again!

Draw an oval for the face. Then add the bowl pin body – two curved sides widening out and a curved baseline to close the shape.

Step 2: Draw Santa's moustache and beard

Drawing step: Draw Santa's moustache and beard
Drawing step: Draw Santa's moustache and beard

Here is a slight variation to our easy Santa face. Draw a “C” shaped curve for a nice round nose. For the moustache, just sketch two simple ovals. We will be improving on those when we draw the outline.

Similarly for the beard, sketch the simple heart shape again – and we will draw it out in more detail later.

Step 3: Draw Santa's face

Drawing step: Draw Santa's face
Drawing step: Draw Santa's face

Now draw Santa’s face. Draw two small circles for nice round eyes, with two smaller circles for simple round pupils at the bottom.

Then draw two thick moon-shaped eyebrows, again slightly tilted out, to give our Santa a happy expression. Finally, draw a simple short curved mouth.

Step 4: Draw Santa’s hat

Drawing step: Draw Santa’s hat
Drawing step: Draw Santa’s hat

Let’s draw Santa’s hat – this is very similar to the easy Santa’s hat.

Start with the bottom rim – draw the familiar curved rectangle with short bulked-out sides. Then draw a simple oval where you want the pompom to be.

For the top of the hat, the left side has a nice swoop from the rim of the head all the way to the pompom. Then add the short lower line to attach the pompom.

Step 5: Draw Santa’s legs and boots

Drawing step: Draw Santa’s legs and boots
Drawing step: Draw Santa’s legs and boots

Hey, finally the Santa gets some legs! The legs will be made from the curved out rectangles or ovals – a bit like the Michelin man.

Start with the top two half-ovals – these are the part of Santa’s trousers that bulge up from under the coat and tighten back into his boots. The next two “ovals” are our familiar fur rims, this time on Santa’s boots.

Finally, it is time to learn how to draw Santa’s boots. For some variety, we draw the boot on the left, which is Santa’s right, from the side. The boot on the right, which is Santa’s left, we draw from the front. (Hey, did we confuse you there? Do you know your left from your right?)

Step 6: Draw Santa's arms

Drawing step: Draw Santa's arms
Drawing step: Draw Santa's arms

That was fun – let’s do it again: Draw Santa’s right arm (the one on the left) pointing up and waving at us. That is the two slightly curved lines up.

Draw the right arm (Santa’s left) bent towards the body – it will hold the bag of Christmas presents. Draw a curved line from shoulder to elbow, and another one from the elbow bent back towards the body. That is enough.

Step 7: Draw Santa's mitten gloves

Drawing step: Draw Santa's mitten gloves
Drawing step: Draw Santa's mitten gloves

Now, let’s draw Santa’s hands. He is wearing warm mittens with the Santa trademark fur cuffs. Draw those the same as the rim on Santa’s hat, just smaller – two short curved sides, joined by two arcs.

Next the mittens. (Oh, oh, can we do the left-right thing again? No? Twice was more than enough? Aaaaah…, OK then).

The waving hand is an open palm – drawn as one large “U” curve – with a thumb pointing towards the body – a small “Uit” curve.

The hand holding the bag is one large curve, shorter and rounder than the open palm as it curves around the bag (coming up soon!). The thumb is short and round – it is just the lower part of the thumb, as most of the finger will be hidden behind the bag.

Step 8: Draw Santa’s present bag

Drawing step: Draw Santa’s present bag
Drawing step: Draw Santa’s present bag

Time to add the big sack of presents over Santa’s shoulder.

First draw the top line, which defines the bag shape – a nice swooping curve from the shoulder down to about Santa’s waist. Then draw the short inner line over the shoulder – that is where the bag is folded.

Then complete the bag by drawing the bottom part sticking out of Santa’s hand. Draw the two sides of the bag opening out and the wavy end to close it.

Step 9: Draw Santa's belt and coat rim

Drawing step:  Draw Santa's belt and coat rim
Drawing step: Draw Santa's belt and coat rim

Our sketch is almost done – let’s just add the final details on the coat. It needs the fur rim again at the bottom – two short sides and a line at the top.

Another Santa trademark is the belt over his coat. Draw the belt as two curved lines across the body with a big square buckle in the middle. The buckle is partially hidden behind the bag – so no need to draw it there.

Christmas is also a time of angels:

Angel Drawing: A Graceful Female Angel in a Few Lines - step-by-step-drawing tutorial featured image

Angel Drawing: A Graceful Female Angel in a Few Lines

Step by step tutorial to create a minimalistic yet powerful angel drawing. Use a few well placed lines to draw a beautiful, graceful, female angel.

How to draw Santa: outline the drawing step by step

Step 1: Draw Santa’s face

Drawing step: Draw Santa’s face
Drawing step: Draw Santa’s face

Time to improve on our sketch, starting with the face!

Let’s add another of the usual Santa props – reading glasses sitting halfway down the nose. They are two small circles joint with a curved bridge over the nose. Santa’s eyes are then partially hidden behind the glasses – so draw out only the part of eyes that can be seen.

Next, improve on the moustache – outline the sketched ovals, but add fancy pointy ends twisting up. Round off the edges on the eyebrows. Draw the mouth the same as in the sketch. Done.

Step 2: Draw Santa’s hat and beard

Drawing step: Draw Santa’s hat and beard
Drawing step: Draw Santa’s hat and beard

Another improvement on the sketch coming up right now: When outlining Santa’s beard, follow the sketched outline with a random zig-zag line. The hair around the face points sideways, and as you get lower, the pointed ends are directed more towards the ground.

Santa’s hat is outlined as sketched. Just do not forget to break the bottom edge for eyebrows.

Step 3: Draw Santa's arms and bag

Drawing step: Draw Santa's arms and bag
Drawing step: Draw Santa's arms and bag

Outline Santa’s arms and mittens. Those are direct outlines of the sketch. The only other trick to watch out for is leaving out the part of the shoulder line hidden by the bag (on the right arm which is Santa’s left… Stop, not again!).

We have left the bottom of the bag out for now – we will finish it in the next step.

Step 4: Draw Santa's coat and belt

Drawing step:  Draw Santa's coat and belt
Drawing step: Draw Santa's coat and belt

Drawing out the coat, let’s make some changes to break the bowling pin shape of the body. Draw the sides of the belt slightly curved in – the belt is tight, so it narrows the coat outline a bit. The lower part of the coat between the belt and rim then bulges out slightly. Finally, the line from the armpit to the belt curves slightly in.

The last detail to add is the little fold line in the armpit. And since we are done with the outline of the coat, we can finish drawing the bottom of the bag, since we know where it needs to end.

Step 5: Draw Santa’s legs and boots

Drawing step: Draw Santa’s legs and boots
Drawing step: Draw Santa’s legs and boots

The last bits to outline are the legs and boots. These are a straight outline of the sketch – no fancy improvements here.

OK, almost – we have corrected the size of the legs a bit. That is what the sketching and outlining is for – to sketch the rough shape first and improve it the second time around.

Step 6: Erase the sketch lines

Drawing step: Erase the sketch lines
Drawing step: Erase the sketch lines

Erase the sketch lines with an eraser to show the complete Santa drawing. This could be the end of our how to draw a Santa tutorial – we have drawn a pretty good looking Santa.

The drawing looks a but too flat, though. Let’s see if we can do something about that.

Step 7: Add shading and detail lines

Drawing step: Add shading and detail lines
Drawing step: Add shading and detail lines

Let’s break those flat surfaces with some lines for details and shading.

Let’s start with the fold lines: two folds on the hat, and the triple line inside the waving arm elbow.

Now some shading: short lines on lower the tip of the hat, under the bent elbow, on the trousers and on the shoes.

And finally, a few more lines to add extra detail: the fur on the pompom, random hair lines on the beard and moustache and some texture on the bag. Last we thicken the soles of the boots and we are done.

Another Christmas decoration:

How to Draw Holly for Christmas - step-by-step-drawing tutorial featured image

How to Draw Holly for Christmas

Learn how to draw holly. An easy and quick step-by-step tutorial to draw holly leaves and berries as a decoration for your Christmas cards.

How to draw Santa: finished drawing

How to draw Santa: finished outline drawing

How to draw Santa: finished outline drawing
How to draw Santa: finished outline drawing

Here is the completed result of our “How to draw Santa” tutorial in a single colour.

Now, we like this version more than the simple outline in step 6 above. But if you prefer the cleaner drawing, you have a choice.

How to draw Santa: finished drawing coloured-in

How to draw Santa: finished drawing coloured-in
How to draw Santa: finished drawing coloured-in

And here is the finished Santa drawing in colour. The colours for Santa are given – if you would give your Santa a green coat, he would become an elf, rather than Santa. So: the hat, coat and pants have to be a nice, bright red – not much choice there.

All the fur trimming on the hat, coat, boots and mittens, as well as the mittens themselves, are white. We have again used the trick from drawing a snowman and added shaded areas in light blue, to suggest some volume.

The boots and the sack are a dark yellow – the same colour for the leather boots as well as the hessian sack, to add some contrast to the red and white.

And that is is – now you know two different ways how to draw Santa!

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