Jesse Tree

So, this year, we decided to make a Jesse tree.  It's somewhat like an Advent calendar, though more historical in nature, working from Jesse and the genealogy up to Jesus' birth.  We thought it sounded like a  great way to truly anticipate Christmas... and a good tradition for us to start!  The main idea is you have a tree, read a daily devotional, and then put up ornaments day by day that are based on the devotional.

I heard about the Jesse tree from Ann Voskamp's blog, A Holy Experience.  She sends out daily e-mails which I love reading and inspire me on days when I need it.  I'm also slowly working through her book, One Thousand Gifts - maybe I'll get to finish it over this Christmas break - that would be lovely.

Anyway, onto the Jesse tree.  We were trying to come up with the best choice for a tree, since we're in a small space and barely had room for a Christmas tree, which can't handle 25+ ornaments hanging from it.

So, to Target we went, and found a wall decal tree for just under $15, which seemed reasonable.  It's supposed to be removable, so we'll see if that's true.  Either way, we like it.  And if it doesn't hold up, we'll come up with a new plan next year.

Here's the tree, put onto our wall. Nick and I had to do this together, and it was slightly more time consuming than I'd expected.  Either way, I really love how it turned out, plus it's a nice change from the quilt we'd had hanging over our bed.

Next came the ornaments. The devotional for the Jesse tree from Ann Voskamp came with ornaments to print and cut out.  So that's what I did - printed on brown card stock, cut them out, labeled them on the back with the dates so I didn't get confused.  But then, I realized if we want to use these year to year, it would really be best to laminate. So, after multiple trips to Target and consequently forgetting to get laminating sheets, they were finally laminated.

Sheepishly, I confess that we should have started our ornaments on November 30th, but they weren't all laminated until December 9th, so the tree became suddenly filled all at once.

Here's the tree with the first 10 or so ornaments.  We just put them on with masking tape and will fill as we go.  

An up close of some of the ornaments - they seem to be holding up well so far!

That's it!  Jesse tree in progress.  Super easy and fun to do - you should be able to find the link on Ann's site if you'd like to give it a try, or I can send you the link myself!