The Origami Holiday Tree at the American Museum of Natural History

Opening Monday, November 24, the delightfully decorated Origami Holiday Tree returns for an annual New York City tradition that has marked the start of the holiday season at the American Museum of Natural History for decades.

This year’s 13-foot tree, New Beginnings, celebrates the spectacular variety of species that evolved after an asteroid impact ended the age of dinosaurs some 66 million years ago, inspired by the new exhibition Impact: The End of the Age of Dinosaurs. The theme is a playful nod to the burst of new life, including an explosion of mammal diversity, that followed the asteroid impact, which ended the age of non-bird dinosaurs and reshaped life on Earth.

Topped with a golden asteroid, the tree will feature more than 1,000 origami pieces including models of new species of animals and insects for which the dinosaurs’ mass extinction paved the way. The tree will also feature beloved Museum exhibits including the Blue Whale, as well as origami pieces depicting dinosaurs and other extinct reptiles—pterosaurs who filled the skies, mosasaurs and plesiosaurs who ruled the seas, and Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex, which walked the Earth during the Cretaceous Period.

Produced in partnership with OrigamiUSA, the Origami Holiday Tree is decorated with hand-folded paper models created by local, national, and international origami artists.