Jesse Tree

It has taken a few years, but I've finally gotten around to organizing our house to do a Jesse Tree during the Advent season. The Jesse Tree is decorated with symbols that tell the story of Christmas from the very beginning... except we're just putting our decorations on the Christmas tree. (And when I say beginning, I mean it begins with the story of creation and goes from there.)

Ornaments representing the creation story, the story of Adam and Eve, and God's promise to Abraham & Sarah.

Every night(ish) we light the Advent candles while we do a short family devotion and the kids decorate a paper circle with a symbol that is representative of that night's story. It's a really special time for us at the end of the day. Malcolm's colouring is on the other side of these ornaments. He somehow manages to connect the story to whatever solid colour he's chosen to colour his circle with. With the story of Adam and Eve, the circle is red because the whole thing is the apple. For the story of God's promise to give Abraham & Sarah a baby, the whole circle is a blue blanket... and baby Isaac is hiding inside the blanket, so you can't see him.