Santa Cross Stitch Patterns

‘Tis the season for holiday crafting, and a classic Christmas cross stitch theme is cross stitched Santas. These sweet designs are great to use as home decor or give to a friend who collects Santa things.

The Enchanting Christmas design from Love Crafts is a fun take on a retro Santa decorating a funky Christmas tree. The pattern uses 13 colors and is rated easy. It’s a free download from Anchor.

Another version of Santa in a long cloak comes from Lucie Heaton. She has a set of four cards you can stitch with vintage Santas carrying gifts. Each is around 50 by 50 stitches and you can find them on Etsy.

Stitching Space has a sweet free Santa cross stitch pattern designed by Ksenia Voznesenskaya. Santa is holding a gift and there’s a lot of backstitching details to add depth. You could even use beads as the snowflakes falling around the scene. It uses 18 colors and three blends.

You can grab a cute Santa checking his list and/or a winking Santa from Craft and Fabric Links. These free patterns were originally published on ABC Cross Stitch Patterns.

Speaking of Santa checking his list, here’s another option in that style, where he’s getting expert advice from a reindeer. This one comes from Cross Stitching Goods on Etsy and measures 206 by 193 stitches. It uses 37 colors.

And if you envision Santa being busy in lots of different ways, you’ll love this design from Etsy seller Stitchrovia. Here Santa is busy decorating a tree, skiing, skating, wrapping presents, making a snowman and more. The full design is a lot of fun but you could also stitch individual Santas to use on greeting cards.

Gazette 94 has charts for six classic style Father Christmas cross stitch patterns. These would be great for making ornaments or cards, or you can stitch them and use them as gift tags that become part of the present.

Next Pattern:

35+ Sunflower Cross Stitch Patterns

If you like repeating cross stitch designs, borders you can use on other projects or as bookmarks, florals and Japanese-inspired designs, you’ll want to check out 200 Japanese Cross Stitch Designs by Saeko Endo. This collection of 200 cross stitch charts is low on instruction but big on inspiration for those who are comfortable taking a chart and running with it.

The book includes a brief introduction to the needed supplies and basics of stitching, but mostly is just photographs of finished designs and the charts that go with them. The charts vary widely in size and there can be anywhere from one to six charts printed on a single page.

Many of the designs are repeating patterns, but the chart shows a larger version so you can see how the repeats go together. Each chart has marked what portion is repeating and how many stitches and rows it includes. Other than that the charts are not numbered, but there are darker lines every five rows to help you count.

The patterns all range from one to three colors, and some include half cross stitches or back stitching, but most are full stitches.

The book is arranged into categories of motifs: geometric patterns, retro patterns, traditional Japanese patterns, floral and fauna and borders and pictorial motifs.

My favorites are the Japanese designs, many of which are recognizable from woodcuts, kimono designs and traditional shashiko embroidery. You’ll find cherry blossoms, suns, knots, and simple line designs that would be lots of fun to stitch.

There are a few pages devoted to different ways to modify charts such as changing colors, changing the way to design is repeated, flipping and rotating designs.

Other than that you’re on your own for how you actually want to use these designs. Of course they can just be stitched and framed but it might have been nice to see some of the projects stitched and staged in a way you might use them in everyday life (repeating motifs as coasters, or a bigger design turned into a pillow, for example).

Sometimes it helps to see designs used in different ways to get you thinking about how you might use them yourself. If you don’t need that creative push, this is a fine book full of patterns you’ll have fun playing with in different ways.

About the book: 112 pages, paperback, 200 patterns. Published 2025 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $24.99.

Next Pattern:

Have you read?