Advent and the Jesse Tree - printable file and ornaments!

 **Please note - this post is from Advent of 2009.  A current  Jesse Tree packet, with schedule, ornaments, and prayers is here.**

A few of our Jesse Tree ornaments and the cards we use to go with them. They are decorated with glitter glue, which isn’t showing up too well in the picture. They’re pretty in real life. :)

We are spending a little bit of time this month Christmas shopping and getting ready for Advent, which begins Nov. 29th… I love having time before Christmas that isn’t hurried and rushed and chaotic… just time for our family to soak in the peacefulness and joy of the season.

One of our little traditions is the Jesse Tree. I use *tradition* in a pretty loose way here, because this is actually only our 2nd year:). But I do hope and plan to make this a tradition for years to come.

The Jesse Tree is a way of telling the story of Jesus’ genealogy and the history of God’s plan of salvation. It goes from creation to the birth of Jesus, hitting the high points like the fall of Adam and Eve, the flood, prophets, and the lineage from Jesse to Jesus. There is an ornament and scripture reading (or Bible story) for each day of Advent.

Because the number of days in Advent can vary a little from year to year (this year there are 26 days) there are a couple of options. You can do the same ornaments and stories every year starting with Dec. 1st and only doing 24 ornaments a year, similar to an advent calendar. Or you can have a couple of *extra* ornaments to slip in here and there, normally on the Sundays of Advent. This is what we will do.

There is no set way of doing a Jesse Tree, if you do a Google search you may find several other ornaments and ideas. It can get a little confusing the first time (or two!).

Some families print ornaments out and let their children decorate them, then hang them on a tree. Many use a bare branch in a garden pot for their Jesse tree. I decided on making a felt tree just for simplicity’s sake so we can do the same thing year after year. I created felt ornaments last year, but when M is older I may print them out, let him decorate the ornaments, and then glue felt to the back of them to hang on the tree. Here’s a picture of the felt tree we’ll use:
I’ve created a file which lists the ornaments and stories for each day. It also has some cards we use that have each day’s scripture reference on them, the special “emphasis point” to talk about, as well as a short prayer to read each evening (suitable for small children). Click on the image to go to the file and see all the elements. The last few pages have printable ornaments to color and decorate.
Last year I checked out a book about the Jesse Tree from the library, but for the life of me I can’t remember the title. I got the ideas for many of our ornaments and prayers from the book, as well as some of the other ideas.

Here’s the specifics of what we’ll do each evening of Advent…

• M will open his special Advent box: Inside the box will be a piece of candy, a sticker, a short length of yarn, the ornament of the day, and the card (for our reference):
• M will eat his piece of candy first (pretty sure of that :) )
• We’ll read the Bible story for the evening from one of our Children’s Bibles or from other religious story books we have. The scripture reference for each day is on each card if you want to read directly from the Bible for older children.
• M will place the ornament on the tree while we talk about the “emphasis point” for the evening (also on the card… things like God’s promises, what makes God sad, etc.).
• M will put the sticker on a tree cutout that we’ll use as an Advent calendar.
• We will read the short prayer written on the card.
• Finally, M will place the piece of yarn in the manger. One piece of yarn per evening to make a soft bed for baby Jesus, while doing this we’ll say something along the lines of “Come Baby Jesus, be born in our hearts”.On Christmas Eve there will be a baby Jesus to place in the manger on top of the “hay”.

Last year he was two and needed quite a bit of guidance, but by the end of Advent he had the routine totally down. Especially the candy part. ;)

If this is something you want to try with your family and you have any questions, please let me know!! Or if you already decorate a Jesse Tree as part of your tradition, I’d love to hear about it!

Have a beautiful day! :)

The Art Box

 (M peering into the art box to see all the *stuff*)

We have a very small house and there just isn’t space enough for M to have his art supplies available to him at any time.  Normally I have something planned each day for him to do – usually some sort of painting or gluing activity.  He does have access to markers, crayons, colored pencils, a glue stick, scissors, and paper, and he does a lot of cutting and drawing, but I just feel there’s a lot more that he could be experimenting with.
Now that he’s three I’ve been thinking about giving him a bit more freedom with art supplies, but I don’t want him digging through my art stash all the time and driving me nuts with the mess.  So I came up with the “art box”.
It’s just a cheap $1.00 dishpan-type tub from Dollar Tree.  I filled it up with some random art supplies (should’ve gotten a good picture of it before he dug through it) – colored paper, newsprint, torn tissue paper, foam stickers, oil pastels, a strip of crayola gel paints, glue, scissors, craft sticks, pipe cleaners, glitter glue, googley eyes… maybe a couple of other things that I’m forgetting.
I put it on the kitchen table and told him, “This is your new art box!  You can make anything you want with any of the things in here.  Come look at all the stuff!”  I pointed out a few things to him and he was definitely interested.  He kept grabbing things and saying, “I want to do this!”, like he thought I must have some sort of project in mind… so I kept telling him, “You have to think of what YOU want to do – you can make anything you want and if you need something that isn’t in the box, let me know and I’ll see if I can get it for you.”
So, he got busy.  First he wanted to make the craft sticks into an airplane.  He showed me where they should be cut and then I helped him glue them together: (Sorry for the huge close-up, not sure what I was thinking.)  It pretty much stayed like this.  I’ll see if he wants to decorate it in a couple of days.  And, can I just say, I was totally impressed that he knew how to make an airplane and knew where I should cut.  Wow.  He sure surprises me sometimes!
Next, he saw the glitter glue and thought he was in heaven.  He grabbed some paper and did a little experimenting: Who doesn’t love glitter glue?!
At this point I was actually able to leave him and get a few things done in another room (yes!), with the understanding that he should not get down until he called for me so I could make sure he didn’t need to be cleaned up.  Sometimes it’s easier to let him create freely if I’m not actually there to watch the process. ;)
He also apparently saw the glue bottle, because when I came back he had made this: Not sure what it is, but that’s an awful lot of glue for a couple of googley eyes. :) 
He asked for some beads to put on the pipe cleaners, so I found our pony bead stash and he strung some on.  He wanted to make shapes, so when he was done he told me the shape and I helped him form it: Later he hung them on the window tie-back. :)  For some reason this is his favorite place to hang things.  
He made a sticker collage with the foam stickers:
And colored a bit with the oil pastels:
He painted with his roll-on painters over some stencils (he asked me for the roll-on painters and the tape to hold the stencil down):
Then he wanted to open the gel paints.  I gave him some paintbrushes that are quite a bit smaller than what he is used to, we pulled a piece of cardstock out of the art box, and he made this:I was stunned when I came back to see this – I think it’s absolutely beautiful and one of my favorite paintings ever.  (I love it so much I turned it into a button for my blog over there on the left!) 
He spent 2 hours with his art box and I was able to get a lot done, even with checking on him and supplying him with the extras he asked for.
He surprised me over and over again with his creative thinking and I was so proud of him.  The art box will come out on a weekly basis, if not a daily one.  I just have to keep it well stocked.  There is such a variety of things to put in it I don’t think I’ll have trouble with that.  I’m excited to see what else he comes up with, and just had to share this with all of you!
Have a beautiful day! :)