Origami Christmas

Each guest brought their own specialty to my son’s moving-away party. Neighbors and family shared their specialties in food and entertainment.
One guy barbecued salmon, sausages and pork chops. A couple men gutted and carved jack-o’-lanterns with the children. Others played ball or conversed as they flipped a Frisbee for a dog to catch mid-air. Our exchange student sat down on the floor, pulled out a sheet of note paper and made origami figures and shapes.
I enjoyed the food, swapped recipe ideas and watched the children produce paper swans, boxes and butterflies. A couple adults sat down to learn how to fold paper. Since detail-oriented activities are not my strong suit, I watched flat pages of paper bend to her will and finally understood how her family had prepared our hostess gift: a collection of origami figures transported in a cloth bag with red and yellow patterned panels made by her aunt.
The origami folding came to mind last week when I saw an ad for the South Arkansas Arts Center to trim a tree for the second annual festival of trees. What about an origami Christmas tree?
Presented with the idea of creating a couple hundred figures, our guest smiled broadly and quickly dashed to her bedroom. She returned with a packet of origami paper and an origami Japanese-English book. A few of the figures even looked easy enough for me to fold.
We all would help, but she would be the star and teacher.
We took the origami to our church fall retreat. A cluster of teens settled down to watch and help fold. A high school girl copied the folds for a simple butterfly. “Ohh, wow! This is so cool, I am going to fold butterflies when I am bored in math class,” she gushed.
Our exchange student delicately held a folded sheet up to her mouth and puffed gently into the folds. A rounded box popped into shape. Others copied her folds and blew out lop-sided boxes.
We ended up with LOTS of butterflies, a few cranes, several candles and a couple boxes.
Back home I searched the Internet and discovered origami.com with 335 patterns from simple to complex patterns.
When we needed more paper, we discovered it came in a variety of colors and sizes, everything from a couple square inches up to almost a foot square. Some are two-sided colors, others are foiled, patterned or plain. I saw no reason to buy two-square inch pieces until our in-house expert made a pair of tiny pink booties.
I even found instructions for making a Nativity scene complete with donkeys, camels and baby Jesus in a manger. My husband and exchange student followed the instructions and created the figures.
I sat down to help fold a few decorations. I made a six-fold bunny and drew a face with mismatched eyes and a lopsided mouth. Beside me, the honor student of origami made a 42-fold camel which could kneel or stand.
I made an eight-fold butterfly. She folded two realistic looking lilies with stems that brightened the corner clear across the room
I made a 15-fold candle to clip onto the tree. She made an orange cube from six different pieces and about a zillion folds. Each side of the cube had an eight-petal flower with a yellow center.
I took out another sheet of white paper and went back to my specialty. I may not be able to make a six-sided box with flowers, but by gum, you can count on me to fold a whole passel of bunnies for that Christmas tree.