I had not heard of celebrating the Christmas season with a Jesse Tree until this year. I had some vague understanding that it was kind of like an Advent devotional and you used some sort of ornaments with it, but it wasn’t until I ran across Sheri Graham’s 12 Week Holiday Planner that I gained a better understanding of just what a Jesse Tree is.
This Holiday Planner caught my eye in an email from Marilyn Moll (known as the Urban Homemaker). I decided to listen in on her interview with Sheri Graham. After perusing some of the sample pages of this ebook, I decided it would be a tremendous help to me, especially considering I had a baby coming at Christmastime and would need all the extra planning I could get.
However, what sealed the deal was the fact that the planner included a Jesse Tree Devotional from Ann Voskamp. I was so excited to begin a new tradition with our little family. We needed some new memories to help heal some of the pain that would inevitably permeate this holiday season, our first without Emmy.
So, what is a Jesse Tree? Basically, it is a devotional that follows the lineage of Christ and God’s plan of salvation from Adam to Christ’s birth, starting on November 30 and ending on Christmas Day. There is Scripture reading that starts in Genesis and culminates with the Christmas story found in Luke. To help solidify the pieces of this grand plan in our little ones’ heads, there are colorful ornaments for each reading that are placed on a tree…a Jesse Tree. For us, this tree is our Christmas Tree. I would like to someday have a separate tree to represent our Jesse Tree, but for now, the ornaments are a nice addition to our family Christmas tree.
Another thing I would like to do someday is make our own ornaments rather than using the paper ones from the devotional/planner. They are nicely done and we’ve put them on cardstock and laminated them using contact paper; however, I’d like something more “us”. For instance, the reading on Jacob’s Ladder makes me think of a little ladder made out of twigs that have been glued together…simple, but more “us” than paper. I’d like to be able to put together enough of these as part of the holiday season that eventually as each of my children leave our home to start their own families, they would have a shoebox full of their own Jesse Tree ornaments.
Something else I’ve learned about recently is something called a Jesse Tree exchange where each family chooses a day in the devotional and makes ornaments for themselves and the rest of the group pertaining to their particular day. Then they exchange their ornaments and receive the other days from other members of the exchange. This is a fun and crafty idea, but not one I felt I could tackle this year. (Did I mention I am *still* working on Christmas gifts! *sigh*)
Anyway, I thought there were probably others out there like me who had either never heard of a Jesse Tree or who had heard of one, but had not a clue what they were.
If any of you have actually made your own Jesse Tree ornaments I would love to see pictures!
