Holiday Project: Origami Christmas Trees

Thanksgiving. It's sadly over. But happily replaced by the Christmas season!

My apartment complex is already full of the Christmas spirit. Wreaths are tacked up on wooden doors, windows contain strands of bright and colorful lights, and there's even a few nearly decorated coniferous evergreens peaking out of some of the lightly glazed glass panes. But me… I'm not doing the Christmas tree tradition this year. Not enough room. I don't even want to go with a mini-tree. But I still want something to replace it, and I figured… why not origami?

I came across this video on YouTube from user Sara Adams, which demonstrates how to fold an origami fir tree by Flickr user Francesco Guarnieri. I think I found my new Christmas tree tradition. When unattached, the layers of green are octogram star polygons which look like they're formed of three triangles, but could also be two near squares.

It's super small compared to a real Christmas tree, but I'm thinking about making a few of these…. Maybe a forest of them, and maybe with miniature ornaments attached. The tree version in the video above requires the following paper:

• 6-inch brown square (1)
• 6-inch green square (1)
• 4¾-inch green square (1)
• 3¾-inch green square (1)
• 3-inch green square (1)

Here's the final result from Guarnieri himself:

You can snag the design and crease pattern from Guarnieri Flickr page, and check out what the five pieces look like before assembly. While you're there, check out his other work, which includes more Christmas trees!