A New Family Tradition

Have you heard of a Jesse Tree?  I wanted to start this as new Christmas tradition in my home last year and, due to lack of planning, never got there.  I'd like my children to think about the true meaning of Christmas a little more and about what new toy they are going to receive a little less.  Too ambitious?

A Jesse Tree is a unique advent tree that teaches about the Bible at Christmas.  The name comes from Isaiah 11:1 "A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit."  Each day of advent, an ornament is added to the tree and a corresponding devotional is read from scripture.  I hope to focus on the meaning of Christmas each day and hope to teach my children some biblical history, as well.

Looking for a template, I came across this post at simplemom which gives some great tips and resources.  You can also buy a neat Jesse Tree kit at Christian Books or Amazon.

Because I'm getting a late start, I plan to use this simple template I found here or maybe this one here.  We'll start on it this Sunday after Thanksgiving and just use a naked tree branch in a pot on the kitchen table.  You can get pretty creative with this:  make your own tree, buy a little tabletop tree, make a poster for the wall or just use a branch.

Perhaps next year we can make our own ornaments to save them to use each year... like those crafty moms out there who have it together...

~ Katrina