An annual Museum tradition, the delightfully decorated Origami Holiday Tree and two merrily lit 19-foot Holiday Barosaurs welcome visitors to the Museum throughout the holiday season. At The Polar Rink, the Museum's new skating rink, visitors can glide past the Hayden Planetarium surrounded by trees sparkling with lights, and on December 28, Kwanzaa Fest 2008! will fill the Museum's Hall of Ocean Life.

Origami Tree

November 24, 2008—January 1, 2009
Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, first floor

The Origami Holiday Tree has marked the start of the holiday season at the Museum for over 30 years. The theme of this year's tree is Folding the Museum, featuring colorful paper ornaments representing denizens of the habitat dioramas, permanent halls, and special exhibitions. The 13-foot tree will be decorated with hundreds of origami creatures, including a paper Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton and—to represent the trailblazing special exhibition The Horse, entering its final weeks before closing on January 4, 2009—horses. The volunteers begin folding in July to complete approximately 500 creations displayed on the tree. During the holiday season, volunteers will be on hand to teach visitors of all ages the art of origami folding.

Holiday Dinos

November 24, 2008—January 1, 2009
The main entrance to the Museum on Central Park West

The two Holiday Barosaurs, which greet visitors to the Museum on the front steps throughout the holiday season, are fabricated of openwork stainless steel and festooned with pine boughs and lights. Illuminated at night, the whimsical dinosaurs flank the John Russell Pope Central Park West staircase and echo the Barosaurus mount in the Roosevelt Rotunda.