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This book is dedicated to all our wonderful friends who sent us origami ornaments for our Christmas tree in December 2005.

IT ALL STARTED OUT as Kevin’s idea…

On a dark, cold December night back in 2005, on the way back from a delicious dinner, Kevin and I could not resist entering a large parking lot that was filled with so many freshly-cut Christmas trees of all shapes and sizes.  ‘Christmas’ means so many different things to people all over the world, and in our case, Kevin grew up in a Midwest farm town and Matthew grew up in Tokyo.  We had two totally different perspectives to share, so we chose a moderate-sized tree.

Then, leaving the lot, we realized that we didn’t have any decent ornaments to decorate the tree.

At that point, Kevin had a flash of brilliance:  “Hey Matthew,” he asked, “Why don’t you ask your blog readers to send us some origami ornaments?  It might be fun.”  

When we got home and set up the tree, I took Kevin’s advice, and updated my blog, Life in San Francisco (http://blog.goo.ne.jp/matthewsfca), with a plea for folded paper ornaments.  A few days later, much to my surprise, the first package containing precious folded balloons, and birds arrived at our doorstep!  As more and more ornaments arrived day after day from all around the world, our tree truly grew into a work of art, an homage to paper-folding and the love and joy of Christmas.  Thank you so much!

We created this book as a thank-you for all the dedicated paper artists who sent us the unforgettably beautiful ornaments.

And all of us appear in this book.  Yes, all of us!  Kevin, me, and you too!  We hope everyone who reads this book can share the same joy we felt looking at our very own Origami Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve and thinking how lucky we were to have so much love and good luck in our lives.

And here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we wish to extend a special thanks to Toshiko and Hiro, and Visual Ink and Dan for helping us make this book happen.  Thank you, both!

– Kevin and Matthew
   April, 2006

(reprinted dedication from the inside cover of The Flower Boy and the Origami Christmas Tree; Woodson, Matsuyama 2006)

More Origami, Christmas Trees, and Flowers at Matthew's Life in San Francisco, December 2005