The Canterville Ghost Coloring Pages
I love a ghost story where the ghost is kind of losing. This is the original, classic version, written more than a hundred years ago, about a very proud, very experienced ghost named Sir Simon and the family who moves into his house and just refuses to be scared of him. It's funny, a little ridiculous, and it still holds up.
Who Is Sir Simon?
Sir Simon de Canterville is one of the most accomplished ghosts in England, and he'd be the first to tell you so. He's haunted Canterville Chase for more than three hundred years, and in that time he's built up quite a reputation complete with clanking chains and bone-chilling groans.
Nobody agrees anymore on exactly how he died, only that it was a long time ago and that he's never once left the house since. Every family who's lived at Canterville Chase has quickly packed up and moved out because of him. He's had centuries to get good at being frightening, and as far as he's concerned, he's earned every bit of his reputation.
Mr. Otis Offers Oil
When the Otis family arrives to take over Canterville Chase, Sir Simon assumes this will go exactly like every other time. He makes his usual entrance that first night, chains dragging and clanking down the hallway, ready for the screaming to start.
Instead, Mr. Otis meets him calmly, hands him a small bottle of lubricant, and suggests he oil those chains, since a noise like that in the middle of the night isn't very considerate of the rest of the house. Then he goes back to bed. Sir Simon is too stunned to even respond. In three hundred years, nobody has ever offered him household advice instead of running.
The Bloodstain That Won't Behave
Confident that this will do the trick, Sir Simon renews the famous bloodstain on the library floor, the one that's supposedly marked a terrible crime for two hundred years. The Otis twins scrub it out before breakfast using cleaning polish they'd brought from home. Sir Simon lets it reappear that night anyway. They scrub it out again. After a few rounds of this, the stain starts turning up in odd colors, and Sir Simon finally gives up on it entirely. It's hard to feel sinister when the people cleaning up after you seem to be enjoying themselves.
The Monk with the Missal
Determined to try harder, Sir Simon chooses his most elaborate disguise yet: a hooded monk's robe, a rusty dagger, and an old leather missal clutched in his hands, meant to look like a tortured soul doomed to wander forever. He creeps toward the twins' room late at night, fully prepared to haunt properly this time. Before he can even begin, a pillow sails out of the darkness and catches him square in the face. Another follows. By the time he scrambles back to his room, robe askew, he's been hit so many times he's lost count, and not one of the boys ever got out of bed to do it.
Reckless Rupert, the Headless Earl
Refusing to be discouraged, Sir Simon returns a few nights later as Reckless Rupert, one of his most dramatic costumes, complete with a hollow place where his head should be and a long black cloak that trails behind him like smoke.
He's halfway down the corridor when a bucket of water tips off the top of a door and drenches him completely. He presses on anyway, dripping and furious, only to catch his foot on a length of string stretched tight across the floor. He goes down hard, candle and all, lying there a long moment before he can even get his legs back under him.
The Otis Ghost
Determined to end this once and for all, Sir Simon prepares his single greatest performance, the one he's been saving for exactly this kind of occasion. He steps into the dark gallery in full costume, candle raised, and comes face to face with something that stops him cold: a tall, twisted shape, lit a ghastly green, with a horrible grinning face turned straight toward him. For the first time in three centuries, Sir Simon feels real fear, and he turns and flees back to his room without looking back. It isn't until morning that he learns the truth: a pumpkin, a broomstick, and a sheet, rigged up by the twins the night before.
Butter on the Stairs
For his next attempt, Sir Simon chooses the main staircase, convinced a grand entrance down the front steps will finally restore some of his dignity. It goes wrong immediately. Every step has been coated in butter, and the moment his foot lands, he's sliding the rest of the way down on his back, arms flailing, candle flying off somewhere behind him. He comes to a stop at the bottom in a heap, staring up at the ceiling of a house he's haunted successfully for three hundred years, undone this time by a stick of butter.
Moving on
After that, Sir Simon stops trying to scare everyone. Three hundred years of hauntings, and he's been outwitted by two boys with a bucket, a string, and a block of butter. He keeps mostly to his own room after that, rarely seen, until one day the youngest Otis girl, Virginia, finds him there and the two of them talk. Whatever passes between them, nobody else in the house ever learns, but Virginia is there with him when he finally leaves, peacefully, passing on at last after three hundred years. Nobody can say exactly where he's gone, only that the whole house seems to feel it, a warmth and a quiet sense of acceptance settling in once he's done.
Print the story of the Canterville Ghost with coloring pages (PDF)