Our Jesse Tree

One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is doing the Jesse Tree every night during Bible time. A Jesse Tree is just a special way to celebrate advent and has been a fun way to engage our boys in Bible time. Basically, its a chronological countdown of the events leading up to Jesus' birth. The Jesse Tree concept comes from Isaiah 11:1, "There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit..." And the passage goes on to describe who we now know is Jesus, our  beloved Messiah.

I knew last year that I wanted to incorporate the Jesse tree tradition into our celebration of Christmas. ...and that's where I hit a mental block. I am not a very crafty person, and the thought of spending hours sewing detailed ornaments just felt really overwhelming to me. I found some beautiful ones on Etsy, but they were all more than I wanted to spend on this project.

So I did some research and found this blog post where the lady had used the Jesus Storybook Bible to create her Jesse Tree. If you follow the links on the blog, you can also find a link to download the exact pictures she used for her ornaments (I think I paid $6 for the download and it was totally worth it!). I cut out the pictures and modge podged them onto little wooden rectangles I found at Hobby Lobby. I drilled a hole in each rectangle and put a loop of string through them and Voila! My ornaments were complete.

Now I just had to find a tree for the ornaments. Last year, I had in my mind that I wanted a tree made of sticks from our yard. Well, we managed to make the tree, but it did not hold up well. After a few weeks of wear and tear, it was basically demolished. So this year we had to find a different solution.

When we were at my parent's house for Thanksgiving, I spied an old wooden pallet outside and I knew there had to be a way to transform it into our Jesse Tree. A quick search on pinterest affirmed my suspicions. My dad and Michael went to work with a chain saw and a yard stick, creating our "tree." When we got home, I attempted to spray paint the tree, but the wood just soaked up the paint ...so we ended up with a white washed look instead, which I actually like! Finally, I added tiny nails and Christmas lights and we ended up with this:

Before Lights

With lights and ornaments

I am so pleased with how it turned out! The boys are loving our Jesse Tree tradition. Every night during Bible time, we read the passage that corresponds with that night's ornament. After our prayer, song, and memory verse (I plan to do a more detailed post about our family Bible time later), the boys get to rummage through the Jesse Tree box and find the right ornament. Then they take turns placing the ornament on the tree. It has been so special to watch the tree fill up with ornaments as we count down to Jesus' birth. May our hearts be bent towards Him alone during this special season.