Learning Origami: Christmas Stocking 

With the holiday season in full swing, what better way to celebrate than my creating your own Christmas decorations! For this blog post, I will be making Christmas stocking origami, Christmas stockings are a crucial part to celebrating Christmas in my home, and are hung every year above my fireplace. Thanks to Practical Origami: A step-by-step guide to the ancient art of paper folding, I can follow simple steps to create mini-stockings that I am able to decorate with all throughout this holiday season.

In order to make the Christmas stocking, the materials necessary included one square piece of paper with a different-colored reverse side. The book stated that, "This traditional model was originally a napkin fold, but has been adapted here to be made from conventional paper" (Beech, 210). After completing this origami design, I personally would recommend using gift wrapping tissue paper as opposed to construction paper, due to construction paper being more difficult to crease and fold. 

 The first step to creating a stocking is, "With the color you wish to be predominant in the design on top, fold up a narrow strip at the lower edge" (Beech, 210). As I followed the instructions of the book, I noticed that a thinner border at the bottom of the paper, looked more appealing than a thicker border. This is because, a thinner border gave a more distinct look to the stocking.

The most challenging part of creating this origami design was creasing and creating folds in the paper. This is because, I decided to use construction paper, instead of tissue paper, which would be ideal to making a perfect and precise, origami Christmas stocking.

Below are 10 simple steps to creating a Christmas stocking:

Step One: With the side you wish to  be predominant,  fold a strip at the lower piece of the paper.

Step One: With the side you wish to 

be predominant, 

fold a strip at the lower piece of the paper.

Step Two: Flip the paper over horizontally,
and fold in half.

Step Four: Fold the left-handed
corners towards the center.

Step Three: Turn paper 90 degrees
anticlockwise, and fold the sides to be
aligned with the center crease.

    Step Six: Fold newer edge across

           to right-handed edge.

Step Five: Fold left-hand corner across

to inner edges from Step Four.

Step Eight: Turn stocking around, 
    so that narrow piece is on top. 
      Fold model in half, vertically.

Step Seven: Fold upper layer back, 

across to the left.

Step Nine: Swing "toe" of stocking, 

outwards and forwards.

Step Ten: Lock model by opening model, 

lifting border by tucking upper 

corner and folding stocking, 

creating a pocket.

All in all, making these origami Christmas stockings was very informative and entertaining. After making a few Christmas stockings, I feel as if my knowledge as well as my skill-level in completing origami crafts has grown. I will definitely be decorating my house with these Christmas stockings throughout this holiday season! I believe that my knowledge has increased on the skill of making origami, and I am eager to learn more from the book, Practical Origami: A step-by-step guide to the ancient art of paperfolding. I make many of my Christmas ornaments, and my favorite thing about the holidays is spending time with family.  Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

Do you make any homemade Christmas decorations?  What is your favorite thing about the holidays?

Beech, Rick. Practical Origami: a Step-by-Step Guide to the Ancient Art of Paperfolding. Hermes House, 2006.