American Museum of Natural History Tree, NYC

For nearly 30 years, the lighting of the American Museum of Natural History's Origami Holiday Tree has marked the start of the holiday season for Museum staff and visitors. The striking 14-foot-high tree is decorated with more than 1,000 brightly colored, intricately folded paper decorations representing objects and specimens in the Museum's collection. A bountiful array of origami dinosaurs is displayed beneath the tree.

The Museum's origami tradition began when the late Alice Gray, a curator in the Department of Entomology, decorated a three-foot tree in her office with origami insects. The popularity of origami as well as the size of the tree has grown steadily over the years.

On view from Thanksgiving until mid-January in the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, first floor. Please enter via the first floor security entrance under the main stairs on Central Park West at 79th Street.

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