Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Homestead Holidays-A Jesse Tree

I was first introduced to the concept of a Jesse Tree a few years ago. However, each year I normally don't think about making one until we are already well into Advent. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this tradition, here is a great demo to explain it all.  This year I happened to catch a link on another website and thankfully my memory was jogged in time to get one ready for this year!

Now my problem was that most of the websites I found offered great layouts for the devotions but only gave you ideas for the crafts-as in 'you need to gather all the different materials and construct 30 ornaments for this tree'.  Hmmm, maybe someday but not this year at my homestead!  I then set off on an internet search to find a good devotional with simple printable ornaments that the kids could color, cut, mount on pretty paper, and laminate.  That quest was much harder than I had anticipated! Some sites had great devotions but no ornaments whereas others had altered the devotions by switching out some of the verses and Bible figures, but offered printable ornaments. Ugh! Couldn't I find the best of both?

Eureka! I finally found it! RCA online offers a very straightforward, free devotional guide here along with printable ornaments here!  Yay! This will give the kids something exciting to do while I prepare Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, and the goal is to have them ready to begin hanging on our little tree on Sunday.  For our tree, I chose to purchase a small 18" white artificial tree. I wanted it to be in stark contrast to our traditional tree, and I think the white will really help the ornaments to stand out.

If you choose to implement a Jesse Tree into your Christmas countdown this year, I would LOVE to hear your ideas and see pictures!

Holiday Blessings to you and your homestead,
Hillary At Home

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