Here’s a gorgeous Origami Poinsettia Craft that’s perfect for the holiday season! The step-by-step instructions make it really easy – even for kids!

What do you think of when you hear about lovers taking walks, exchanging gifts and spending time together? Most of us would think of Valentine’s Day, which is in February. But not the Japanese – for them, this is what an average Christmas Eve looks like!

Yes, while Japan does celebrate Christmas in all its finery, it does things a little differently from the rest of the world. Christmas Eve is a time for lovers, Christmas is for friends, and New Year‘s is for family time. This actually sounds quite nice!

Here are a few more interesting facts about how Japan celebrates Christmas.

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5 Fun Facts about Christmas in Japan:

Beautiful Origami Poinsettia Craft for Kids

Supplies required:

How to make the Origami Poinsettia Craft:

5 Fun Facts about Christmas in Japan:

1. Only 1% of the Japanese population is Christian, but the holiday is celebrated by everyone all over the country

2. In Japan, the Christmas cake is a strawberry cream cake – a sponge cake filled with whipped cream and topped with strawberries. The red and white colors of the cake reflect the Japanese national flag.

3. In 1974, KFC Japan launched a huge Christmas campaign, and since then, their fried chicken has become the go-to Christmas meal in the country with 3.6 million Japanese families buying their KFC Christmas meals every year.

4. Santa usually enters through the chimney, but since Japanese homes don’t have chimneys, Santa is believed to appear and disappear at will.

5. Germany is famous for its Christmas markets, and it even sponsors one in Japan – the Tokyo Christmas Market, held at Hibiya Park from 16th to 25th December.

I’m sure you hadn’t heard of some of these before! Well, if you’d like to celebrate a Japanese Christmas at home, we’ve got just the thing – a beautiful Origami poinsettia craft!

Beautiful Origami Poinsettia Craft for Kids

Supplies required:

Craft paper or Origami paper in red, green and yellow
Pencil
Craft glue
A pair of scissors

How to make the Origami Poinsettia Craft:

1. We start our Origami Poinsettia craft with a square of green craft paper, measuring 10 cm by 10 cm.

2. Fold the square diagonally in half.

3. Unfold the last fold so you can see a diagonal line across the square, separating it into two triangles.

4. Take a corner of the top triangle and fold it inward so it meets the diagonal crease. The triangle has turned into a trapezoid!

5. Fold the top edge of this trapezoid inward so it meets the diagonal crease.

6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 with the triangle on the other side of the diagonal. You will end up with a shape like the one shown below – a stick with two pointy ends.

7. Look at the yellow line in the image above – fold along this line.

8. You will now end up with an image like the one above.

9. Look at the yellow lines in the image below – fold along those lines.

10. You will get an inverted V-shape as shown in the image. These are the leaves of your Origami Poinsettia!

11. Follow all the previous steps with green craft paper squares to create two more leaf patterns.

12. Now take 3 squares of red paper, making them slightly smaller than the squares for the leaves. Follow the same steps as above to create 3 of the same shapes, this time in red. These are the petals of your Origami Poinsettia.

13. Put aside the petals and leaves, and cut out a circle from yellow craft paper. Draw a spiral with a pencil and cut along the lines from the outside edge toward the center.

14. Coil the spiral from its outer edge all the way to the center. Use glue to secure the coiled spiral once it looks like the image above.

15. Cut out a small square of green craft paper – this will be our base for the Origami Poinsettia. Apply some glue on it.

16. Stick the origami leaf patterns on the glued paper side by side, so you get a green ‘flower’ as shown below.

17. Time for the petals! Take a red petal and stick it on top of the leaf layer, aligning their centers. The ‘V’ of the petal should frame a leaf. Repeat with the other petals so that the leaves and petals seem to be alternating.

18. Attach the yellow spiral pattern in the center of the petals. That’s it – your Origami Poinsettia is complete!

Poinsettias are an important part of Christmas celebrations, and we love the union of this tradition with Japanese art in this Origami poinsettia craft! So go ahead and enjoy a Merry Christmas, or as they say in Japan, “Merii Kurisumasu!”

If you liked this Origami Poinsettia craft, you may also enjoy these Origami projects: