The Jesse Tree represents the family tree, or genealogy of Jesus Christ. It tells the story of God's salvation plan, beginning with creation and continuing through the Old Testament, to the coming of the Messiah. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, "Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit." (NASB) Each day of Advent a homemade ornament is added to the Jesse Tree, a small tree made of evergreen branches. These symbolic ornaments can each represent a prophecy foretelling of Christ. Other variations include creating ornaments that represent the ancestors in the lineage of Christ, or using the various monogram symbols of Christianity as handmade ornaments.
~ from About.com
Nicole at Tired, Need Sleep has spent tireless hours putting together a free download for everything you need for a Jesse Tree.
I am planning on starting with my kids on December 1st. We are going to put a tree branch in an anchored vase in the middle of our kitchen table and add the ornaments to it each day. (It will look something like this.)
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| Image from Just Another Day in Paradise |
This will be a great way to help us stay focused on the real meaning of Christmas ... the birth of our Lord and Savior.
We did that during Bradley's first your of homeschool. We really enjoyed it. I think it's still one of my favorite things. It brought a lot of discussion about what Christmas is really about.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great idea! I have always heard of it too, but never really knew the details. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeletewe're catholic so we do the Jesse Tree every year but I have friends that aren't and they do it too. So I say if you want to then do :)
ReplyDeleteforgot to leave this wonderful free ebook link http://www.aholyexperience.com/2010/11/free-jesse-tree-advent-devotional-book/
ReplyDeleteVery neat idea :)
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