I was cruising through the tea-related interwebs the other day, and I stumbled upon these wonderful little tea gifts. I thought they were such a cleaver and beautiful way to give tea at Christmas, but their $5.00 price was a little out of my reach (expecially since I had just spent a bunch of money on new teaware
). But I realized that I already had an assortment of tea blooms that I could use, and that Origami isn't really that hard. So I started on the search for a good Origami ornament design I could use to make these unique little tea gifts.I managed to find the exact Origami ornamentthat the New Mexico Tea Company uses to make their products, and I quickly whiped out my neglected pack of Origami paper to try the design. It takes three sheets of paper to make one ornament, and the instructions are very easy to follow. The hardest part was connecting the three pieces, but once I had the first point folded in, it was very easy to finish. The result is a beautiful, sturdy ornament that is completely hollow inside, capable of holding one or even two tea blooms. I plan on making more of these ornaments to hang on the tree, and to use as substitute bows on presents.
If you don't want to put in tea blooms, you can also put in candy, small bundles of loose tea, notes, or really any other small item that would fit in there. If your object is too big, you can also use larger paper and make a gift box instead of an ornament. It's an inexpensive alternative to traditional gifts!
Also, if you wanted to try some different Origami designs, you can find a whole list of them (complete with instructions) here.
For a cohort group at work, I gave everybody a small can of tea as Christmas gift 
