How to Make a Paper Snowflake

After watching Elf over Christmas my son wanted to decorate our house with homemade paper snowflakes too.  I thought it was pretty straightforward from what I could recall from my childhood.  But as it turns out, I was wrong and hit the internet to find out the proper way of doing it, so thought I would share.  If you want a fun craft to do with your kids over winter, this is one---and makes for fantastic decoration.

First get a square piece of paper.  The only paper I had in the house was 8.5x11 all-purpose bond paper.  Fold it to form a proper square.

Cut the excess off the top.

Fold the paper in half to make a smaller triangle.

Make another fold 1/3 of the paper.

Fold the opposite side to lap over the first fold so it looks like the image below.

Next you cut off the bottom ends.

If you want a six pointed snowflake, cut on an upward angle as in the image below.

Toss aside the bottom portion you cut off.  It is the top piece that becomes your snowflake.

Cut various shapes all along the four sides.

And that is it.  Unfold...

And hang.

Kids love them.