I know, I know. You are just getting in the mood for Fall; you can’t handle thinking about Christmas right now. But seriously, the Jesse Tree starts on December 1st (or earlier depending on how you define Advent), so you need to start gathering your supplies NOW.

I just LOVE doing the Jesse Tree with my family during the month of December. I love it because it puts the emphasis on the “Reason for the Season” – that’s Jesus. The name comes from Isaiah 11:1, which says, “A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots.” The Jesse Tree activity uses bible readings and questions to show the family tree of Jesus, starting with Jesse, the father of King David (see the Wiki article here and check out the gorgeous stained glass window). The daily readings start in the Old Testament, setting the stage for Jesus’ arrival, which you read about on the very last day.

Here are a few different options (in a range of prices and time commitment) to help you find a way to integrate the Jesse Tree into your family traditions in a way that works for you! There is a nice, thorough article about the whole Jesse Tree thing here.

There are three things you’ll need: a list of readings for each day, a set of ornaments to represent the theme of each day’s reading, and something to hang the ornaments on each day. I suggest starting by deciding which readings you will use, since they can vary (both in number of days and symbols). Then you can get as fancy as you want!

Option One: Quick and Free

You don’t need a wall hanging or fancy ornaments to do the Jesse Tree! You can find the scriptures and questions online for free! I really like the packet put together by Ann Voskamp at A Holy Experience (find it here). It includes ornaments you can cut out as well as all the readings. Click here to see how Lindsay at Passionate Homemaking used Ann Voskamp’s packet and made her own ornaments to hang on a miniature Christmas Tree.

Another set of readings and printable ornaments available here.

Here is a set with ornaments that the kids can color. What a great way to get them involved!

Option Two: Purchase a set of ornaments ready-made

You can purchase an already-made set of Jesse Tree ornaments on etsy for about $45. You can bring in a branch from the yard, anchor it in a vase with stones, and hang these ornaments on the branch each day as you do the readings. Or, instead of a branch, you can sew or paint a wall hanging and hang the ornaments from buttons or cup hooks. The same etsy crafter above sells a cute set of magnets and a vinyl tree decal for using on a cookie sheet here!

You could just take a plain piece of fabric and sew buttons (like mine) or you could paint a piece of plywood and screw in tiny cup hooks for hanging the ornaments. The possibilities are endless! You don’t even need to have pockets for the ornaments. Some families like to place them in numbered boxes at the base of the tree and open the box on the corresponding day.

Option Three: Fancy Ornaments and a Quilted Wall Hanging

I like things to be beautiful, so ours includes lots of glitter and velvet in rich holiday tones. When I was nine months pregnant with my first child (i.e. when I had a lot more time for sewing projects), I decided I should piece this together, essentially a quilt with 24 pockets. If I had to make another one today, I think I would go for something a bit simpler. But, I reeeeaaaally love it and I’m so glad I put in the time when it was available. I also purchased a hardcover book with the daily readings, questions, and prayers – I prefer the look and feel of the hardcover book to a stack of papers that get ratty after a few years’ use. I also really enjoyed gathering the ornaments, but some were just impossible to find, so I made them myself. For most of the homemade ornaments, I printed an image from the internet, then traced and cut out the shapes from cardboard (cereal boxes) and covered them in different shades of metallic glitter. However, the cardboard ornaments are not super sturdy. This will be our fourth year using ours and they are fine, but I like to think of this as a family heirloom, so I hope to eventually replace all the flimsy ornaments for wood ones (which I will also glitter).

Our ornaments

Here is a quick list of our ornaments and where I got them / how I made them. In order to hang, many of these have a teeny-tiny screw eye twisted into the top – to hang from the string. Also, when looking at regular Christmas ornaments, look for smaller ones or they won’t fit in the pockets (or you could keep them in numbered boxes instead of storing the unused ornaments in pockets). If you want to see a more detailed pic of any ornament, just let me know in the comments.

1. Globe – readymade ornament (ours from here)
2. The Fall – plastic snake from craft store covered in red glitter hot glued to silver styrofoam apple from floral arrangement
3. Noah’s Ark – homemade cutout shape glittered
4. Camel in a Tent – homemade cutout shape glittered
5. ram – Schleich plastic toy
6. Jacob’s Ladder – a wooden picket fence for a doll house, trimmed to ladder shape and glittered
7. Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors – this is cut out from a felted wool sweater
8. Shoot from the Stump of Jesse – branch from my yard with green leaf shape hot-glued on
9. Josaiah finds the Law – “scroll” with fabric rolled on the ends
10. Slingshot – Y-shaped branch from my yard and a rubber band
11. Wheat – two pieces of wheat from an old floral arrangement
12. Wine – grapes floral pick. I bet you could find some miniature bottles of wine at the craft store, too.
13. Ten Commandments – glittered cardboard cutout in the shape of stone tablets
14. Lion and Lamb Resting Together – two Schleich animals hot-glued together
15. Prince of Peace – precut wooden dove ornament (from the craft store) glittered, could add a crown to this ornament
16. Shepherd – this is a ceramic figurine for a nativity (mine’s a bit chipped – I found it on ebay) with a screw eye in the top
17. Cross – pre-cut wooden ornament (from the craft store) glittered
18. The Law, Written on our Hearts – pre-cut wooden heart ornament (from the craft store) glittered with book shape glued on top
19. Star – readymade ornament, easy to find this shape
20. Brick Wall – this is a piece from a dollhouse or Christmas town set (I found this one on ebay)
21. Fiery Furnace – this is a fireplace for a dollhouse and the flame part really lights up! I need to add four little stick people in the flame with a Sharpie.
22. Bethlehem – homemade cityscape cutout glittered
23. Candle – pre-cut wooden ornament (from the craft store) glittered
24. Angel – pre-cut wooden ornament (from the craft store) glittered
25. Nativity – readymade ornament, easy to find =)

For more ornament ideas, go here. It doesn’t look like her blog is actively being updated, but she has some super ideas. She used notecards for the first year – until she could find or make all the ornaments – what a great idea to help you just get started!!! She also uses a regular-sized tree and wraps her ornaments in bags below the tree, so her ornaments don’t have size constraints like ones that have to fit into pockets on a wall hanging. I personally like having a wall hanging, but hers is a really lovely set-up too! Check out her post on making Noah’s Ark from an unfinished wooden pirate ship ornament – wow!

There are a bunch of CUTE Jesse Tree ideas on this Pinterest page.

Do any of you do a Jesse Tree with your family? If you have pics online, leave a link in the comments – I’d LOVE to see!! If you have any sources for Jesse Tree ornaments, please share those too!!!