A few days ago, I posted that we were counting down the days until Christmas on our Jesse Tree as a part of our school day. I thought I’d post about the Jesse Tree and give a few links to places where you can find info on it if you’d like to give it a try for next Christmas season. I highly recommend it!
What is a Jesse Tree?
A Jesse Tree is an Advent tree. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1. Starting on December 1, a homemade ornament is put on the tree (I use a 4 ft. artificial tree) every day.
The first ornament starts with Genesis 1 (creation) and each subsequent ornament continues through the Old Testament, focusing on an OT prophecy of Jesus Christ. On Day 25 (Christmas day), you put on an ornament of baby Jesus. Pretty cool. If you want to read more, check out this site. There are several different versions of the Jesse Tree.
How do I get ornaments for a Jesse Tree?
This site has some ornaments you can print onto paper and laminate for durability. This one does, too.
BUT, here’s the way several groups of ladies at our church have done it and I think it’s a rather cool idea.
- Gather together 25 women.
- Make a list of all the ornaments that need to be made for the tree (these can vary depending on what version you’re using).
- Each woman picks one ornament and makes 25 of them.
- Then, after a couple of weeks have gone by, get together one night (maybe have a Ladies’ Night Out) and trade ornaments.
That’s how I got my set and I love each ornament. I plan on doing this a few more times because I’d like to have a set to pass on to each of my kids, maybe as a wedding present when they get married.
How do I implement a Jesse Tree?
I’m a member of We Teach and LOVE it. I get great ideas and can bounce ideas off of other bloggers/educators when needed. One blogger named Tara created a FREE ebook to go along with the Jesse Tree! Wow! There are also other books you can purchase. This is the one I use. You can actually look inside the book I have at the Table of Contents to get an idea of what ornaments you’ll need.
Most books have a devotional each day, explaining how the ornament fits into the story of Jesus, song suggestions, and a Scripture verse. This year, we’ve stuck mainly to the devotional (a shortened version of it) to keep MBug & NJoy’s attention. But I hope to be able to expand our time in the years to come.
Merry Christmas!
~Becky
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