December 16: Window Stars

Decorating for the holidays is a natural and beautiful tradition. In addition to a Christmas tree and a nativity sets, window decorations are a major part of my winter decorating scheme. Most of us remember making paper snow flakes as kids and I still love to make them. I recently discovered another equally beautiful project involving folding and gluing translucent paper to make window stars. These easy crafts simply transform a room, bringing highlighting the brief light of a winter day. 

Window stars are traditionally made with a product called kite paper, a plastic coated 'wax' paper that comes in brilliant colors. I found a stack of kite paper locally at a Waldorf oriented store but you can order it online for a very reasonable price (Amazon, or Bellaluna Toys, or a few others as well). Some people will recommend tissue paper but I find it tears too easily and gets ruined in the condensation so common on our winter windows. Last year I discovered that tracing paper colored with crayons makes a wonderful paper for window stars. The colors are more subdued which is nice in some designs and you can't beat the price.

Making window stars is not difficult and the results look much more complicated than they really are. It basically involves folding squares or rectangles into pointed shapes and then gluing them together. If you can do simple origami, or if you ever folded a note in middle school into a shape you can make window stars.Here is a link to my favorite online tutorial with instructions for five basic shapes. As you understand how the pieces fit together to make the different shapes you will be free to mix and match colors, shapes and sizes to make an army of different, beautiful stars. Here is a link to my flickr set with photos of stars I have made as well as links to more instructions. Here are more flickr photos of window stars by other people. Once you understand how they are made you will be able to recreate most of these designs. 

 
There are two competing impulses within us in these dark days of winter. One is the curl up and hibernate like little woodland creatures. We want to watch movies or read, nap and eat carby foods that keep us sleepy and warm. The other impulse is to fight the darkness with light - overhead lights, Christmas lights, full spectrum lights, sugary and alcoholic foods that keep us up up up. I think window stars are a gentle way to celebrate what little light is around, while also honoring the need to stay in, do homewoven handicrafts and have some quiet time. Or maybe they are just beautiful and need no other explanation  :)

Christmas Carol: Joy to the World

The words to this most popular Christmas carol were written by the Englishman Isaac Watts in 1719 and set to the tune we use today in 1839. The lyrics are about Christ's second coming but they have broad appeal to all kinds of people. The Bing Crosby version is my childhood favorite, but Aretha Franklin sure can rock it. For a smile, check out this flash mob version in a mall in Minnesota. Joy to the world!