Originally Posted by dutchie
I used to make these as a child- it was passed along through my family's German heritage. There used to be paper companies in PA where you could buy for cheap the scraps from their paper mills, but with the death of so many paper mills, the paper got harder to find. It has to be precisely cut, otherwise the stars go wonky as you work them.
Things we did with these stars: Poke a hole with a needle and then hang them on the Christmas tree with a paper clip through the hole. Decorate with glue and glitter, then dip in hot wax to permanently seal them. (The paper clip really aids to dip them in the hot melted wax.) They keep for years and year this way, if you take care not to crush them when you put the ornaments away at the end of the season. My mom still has ones I made as a child.