I am, in the finest holiday tradition, about to hibernate for the next two weeks or so. You may imagine me slightly dazed, speckled with inexplicable glitter, cookie sprinkles stuck to my hair, pillow creases on my face, blinking at the sparkly lights, completely devoid of vegetables, completely unsure of what day of the week it is, and headed off to find the nearest kitten and mug of hot chocolate.

Or, if I’ve napped and snacked as much as my middle aged self can manage, I’ll be off to continue the holiday tradition of folding these to bring the light back and bring order to the world. I’m not sure why it works, but it has every year so far, so I’m sticking with it.

On the off chance you want to bring some order of your own, the brief run down on these*:

• Instructions: I wrote two ebooks of instructions for them (here and here) in case you want someone to talk you through them. You can totally also just experiment on your own (try search terms like ‘window stars’ or ‘waldorf stars’ or ‘fenstersterne’ to get started).
• Materials: They’re made with a fancy kind of translucent paper called glassine paper. You might also see it called kite paper or waldorf star paper.
  • There are two main kinds of glassine paper, the super spiffy Japanese stuff that I have yet to find a reliable source for in the US (I literally order mine off Japanese ebay), and the German stuff which is lovely, but doesn’t come in nearly as many colors, but which you can find far more easily (that’s what I linked to above).
  • Glassine paper is not quite the same as either origami paper (which is usually opaque) or tissue paper (which isn’t nearly as crisp or sturdy) or tracing paper (which tends to be much thicker and not to come in fancy colors). You can absolutely experiment with those if you wanted to! They just may look a little different than mine.
  • You make each star by folding several pieces of paper, all the same way, and assembling them into a star (there are templates in my books to help you do it neatly). I like to hold the pieces together with big clear stickers like this, and hang them in my windows with glue dots like this.
• Tools: In addition to the paper, you may want a few other things. They’re not required, but they are helpful if you want to make a lot of stars.
  • A bone folder comes in handy to save your thumbnail.
  • If you’ve always wanted an excuse to get a paper cutter, consider this your permission slip. The stars come out best when the pieces of paper are all exactly the same size, and that’s easier to do with a paper cutter.
  • If you are making them in the dark (because, say, the sun is still setting well before dinner time), a light pad makes folding them much easier, but is absolutely not necessary.

Really though, the only necessary bits are the paper, something to hold the pieces of paper together, and some time to zone out and concentrate on folding for a little while (each star takes me about 40 minutes, a little more if it’s fancy, a little less if it’s simpler). It’s a lovely way to pass the long winter evenings, and they look fantastic in a sunny window. I hope they bring you as much joy as they bring me!

*Yup, amazon affiliate links. Amazon is the devil and if you have the option to buy these somewhere else, I think you should! But some of that stuff (especially the paper) is hard to find other places (no really, Japanese ebay is the only place I’ve found the fanciest paper). So if you’re going to get it from the bad guys anyway, I’m ok if they share a tiny sliver of their ill gotten gains with me. Really though, if you’ve got a local store that carries this stuff (Fiddlehead Artist Supply in Belfast, Maine is my local craft store actually occasionally has similar paper), and you want that to continue to be the case, do your best to shop there when that’s accessible to you.