Christmas Present 2008- the Jesse Tree

I found out about the idea of the Jesse Tree from Simple Mom's blog and fell in love with it. Ian and I decided to make our family one for Christmas as well as make them for his brother's family, his parents, my parents and my sister's family. That's 5 trees for those of you who like math! Then I convinced my best friend Leanne to be crazy and join me on this adventure and she convinced another friend of ours to do it as well as making one for her brother's family. We are up to 8 trees. By now you're thinking, who cares how many you made? You really want to know: What in the world is a Jesse Tree?

Answer:
The Jesse Tree idea is born from the scripture found in Isaiah 11:1-2.“A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.” This refers to the fact the Jesus would be born from the line of David, whose father was Jesse. Starting with this idea on November 30th, we do a small devotional each day that relates to Jesus. As we countdown to the celebration of His birthday we hang ornaments or symbols on our Jesse Tree. For example, we read the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den found in Daniel 6. We talk about the fact that God is the most important thing in our lives and we have to choose Him above anything else. Then we hang a lion ornament on our tree and say a prayer.

Cool, I want to make one:
You can find a lot of information about how to do a Jesse Tree and example devotionals on line. There are even books with devotionals and ideas available. You can even buy pre-made ornaments on-line. Ultimately, each Jesse Tree will be slightly different and you can customize it over the years for your family. The important thing is that you are reading scripture and learning God’s Word and plans as you prepare to celebrate our Savior’s birth.

You are welcome to use the devotionals we used. Most of them come from the Reformed Church of America, but we deleted some of theirs and added a few of our own. Like I said, make it your own tree. You should know that it took us a lot of time and effort to gather all of the ornaments, but it was totally worth it. If you decide to make one of your own for Christmas 2009 start early! If you need some help just let me know. I'm happy to share where we purchased things and how we made some of the ornaments.

Here is a picture of our final product:

Amelia was totally into this. Each day she would wake-up and ask when we were going to do our Jesse Tree for the day. She hung all of the ornaments, so the tree looked a little funny, but it was a great conversation piece. There is also a picture of the devotionals we used for each day. I printed mine on red cardstock and put each day in an envelope. Leanne printed hers on paper, attached them to colorful Christmas paper and put them in a small photo album. Have fun!