A Christmas star map: a night of their own

Choosing the night

A star map shows one night, and for a Christmas gift it rarely needs to be a Christmas one. Choose the night that matters most to the person opening it:

• The night you met, for a partner.
• Your wedding night, for a husband or wife.
• The night they were born, for a child, or for a parent from their children.
• Your first Christmas together, the sky over Christmas Eve that year.

You need the place, the date and roughly the time. A city is enough for the place. If the time is a guess, the sky is still the sky from that night; it is just turned a little.

What to write on it

Under the stars go your own words: usually their name or yours together, the date and place, and one line that means something to them.

For a first Christmas, start from “Our First Christmas” with “The same stars, every Christmas since.” underneath. Every word can be changed.

Getting it in time

The digital file is emailed within minutes of ordering, so it is never too late. It prints sharply at any print shop or photo lab. Here is how to print it.

A star map and the moon from the same night

For a pair under the tree, add a moon phase print of the same night: the whole sky on one, the moon as it hung that night on the other. Look up the moon on any date.

What you get

Today it comes as a high-resolution digital file for USD $29, emailed within minutes and sized to print sharply at 18×24 inches, a standard frame size, at any print shop or photo lab. Printed and framed versions from us are coming soon. A second design in the same order is 25% off.