Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Jesse Tree

I have wanted to have a Jesse tree for the last couple of years but couldn’t seem to get it all together before Christmas. For those who aren’t familiar with the Jesse Tree it is a great way to countdown to Jesus’ birth (a type of advent). The name Jesse Tree comes from Isaiah 11:1 "A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and branch out from his roots." and the tree represents Jesus’ family tree.

So here is how it works: everyday you read a bible story and hang an ornament that coordinates with the story on the tree. The stories start at creation and go through Jesus’ birth. I have found some great links to ideas, bible verses and printable ornaments. This year I am going to print the ornaments but I want to start collecting real ornaments and making some as well. This is going to be a new tradition for us that I am really excited about! As for the tree, we are are using a little tree we have had for a few years. Here are the links I used:

Simple Mom: a great overview of the Jesse tree and ideas for ornaments and tree

Confessions of a Homeschooler: Links to free printable ornaments and devotions

Our Jesse Tree: she has great pictures of her ornaments

Passionate Homemaking: tons of great ideas

Tired, Need Sleep: lots of great ideas and I love her idea on also having the girls add a piece of yarn each night to the manger so when Christmas day arrives the manger will be nice and soft for baby Jesus

I would love to know if you have a Jesse tree!

3 comments:

Kate @ The Gaines Gang said...

Thanks so much for reminding me about this. I prepared it all last year and then we allowed the holidays to take us over. Cannot wait to do this with my kiddos this year.

Jodi Jansen said...

We love doing the Jesse tree. A quick and easy idea for ornaments is a package of shrinky dink paper from Michaels, a box of pencil crayons. Just have your kid design their own picture based on the Bible Reading... outline in black permanent pen and bake into an ornament.

Christopher said...

I am loving doing this with the kids every night.