Butterfly Christmas Cards

A Christmas card built from butterflies, quiet, multicolor, and a different kind of December entirely.

We found illustrations of butterflies and could not stop looking at them. The color, the delicacy, the way each wing holds its own pattern. Building them into a tree felt like the only right thing to do, not because it was clever, but because it was true. A fairy topper, a gold star, pink cursive wishing happy holidays, and underneath all of it: wings, where the boughs would normally be.

This is for the person who loves butterflies all year and has never seen the season make room for that. For someone who has a collection of pressed wings on the windowsill and a stack of red-and-green cards they never quite send.

Twenty-four folded cards, each one 4 x 5.5 inches, designed and printed in Columbus, Ohio, the kind of thing worth opening slowly.

The reaction tends to come before the explanation. That is the feeling we were after.