Almost immediately when I saw Paula Beardell Krieg’s origami stars, I thought about turning one into a Santa Star. It occurred to me that the white pentagon formed on the back of the star would make a nice beard for Santa. I made a prototype and tweaked it and tweaked it until I got this result:

Why did I want to do this? My daughter-in-law, Michelle, adores Santa Stars. They are her favorite Christmas decoration. When I gave her this Santa Star, she got so excited. She recently took a picture of her collection, and I am thrilled that the one I made for her was included.

If you would like to make this Santa Star, follow these steps.

1. Click on the pentagon above, then copy and paste it into a document. Make it as big as your printer allows.
2. Print the pentagon and cut it out.
3. Follow the directions in the video by Tobias that Paula recommends.

Here are some pictures I took as I folded mine. Click on them if you want to see them better. I’ve also included a few tips to help you in folding the star:

In this picture, you can see that the pentagon was folded in half five different ways in the first set of folds. The second set of folds creates a smaller pentagon in the center of the pentagon as well as a star-like shape.

The third set of folds creates a new crease. I make a flower-like shape by refolding that crease on each side. To me, this “flower” is a very important step to get the paper to form the star.

Those creases will help form the small white pentagon you see in the picture below that will become Santa’s beard.

Turn the paper over to reveal a bigger pentagon. You will fold the vertices of this pentagon to the center of the pentagon. Fold the red and black tips at the same time as you fold the vertices. After you make the first fold, I recommend unfolding it. Fold the other vertices in order so that first fold will eventually become your last fold. The last fold is the most difficult to do. If it has already been folded once, it will be much easier to fold at the end.

Again, here is the finished Santa star.

Now I’ll share some facts about the number 985:

985 is the sum of three consecutive prime numbers:
317 + 331 + 337 = 985

29² + 12² = 985 and 27² + 16² = 985

985 is the hypotenuse of FOUR Pythagorean triples
140-975-985
591-788-985
473-864-985
696-697-985

When is 985 a palindrome?
It’s 505 in BASE 14 because 5(14²) + 5(1) = 5(196 + 1) = 5(197) = 985
It’s 1H1 BASE in 24 (H is 17 base 10) because 1(24²) + 17(24) + 1(1) = 985

• 985 is a composite number.
• Prime factorization: 985 = 5 × 197
• The exponents in the prime factorization are 1 and 1. Adding one to each and multiplying we get (1 + 1)(1 + 1) = 2 × 2 = 4. Therefore 985 has exactly 4 factors.
• Factors of 985: 1, 5, 197, 985
• Factor pairs: 985 = 1 × 985 or 5 × 197
• 985 has no square factors that allow its square root to be simplified. √985 ≈ 31.3847