Some of you saw this title and knew exactly what I was talking about while others (like me last year) have NO idea what I am talking about. Well...... do you remember my advent mishap from last year? I was so frustrated by my not-so-usable advent calendar that I started looking for other options for making my own advent calendar. I found some great handmade versions online that inspired me, but then someone uttered the words that changed my direction permanently... Jesse tree.
A Jesse tree is a Catholic tradition that takes the idea of an advent calendar and infuses a large amount of bible goodness into the center of it. Starting on December 1st, each day you put a different ornament on your Jesse tree... the ornaments each represent a person from the lineage of Christ, or an old testament prophesy about Christ.... COOL! So each night we show Micah the new ornament, read the corresponding scriptures and add the ornament to our tree... by Christmas, only the manger ornament will be left to add and the tree will tell the story of Christ! By now, each night after we finish the story, Micah takes the ornament to the tree and tries to hang it himself... so cute!
The front of the ornaments with characters, verses and corresponding day in December :)
Noah's ornament~
Abraham and Jacob~
Moses :)
Moses :)
The tree so far!
6 comments:
What a clever idea...and, to me, it seems more meaningful than the Advent calendar.
Gran
Are you taking orders??? :)
I agree with Kelli - it is so hard to find jesse tree ornaments out there. Yours turned out beautifully! If we ever decide to do a Jesse Tree I'll have to talk to you about yours.
Haha Kelli.. NO!! They were so time consuming! The good news is that you could easily do a less crazy version :) Amy, I'd love to consult any time :)
Hi, I realize that you made these Jesse Tree ornaments, um, 3 years ago...but, just *hoping* that you might provide a description of the materials you used and possibly a brief run down of the process step-by step??? Are they made of laminated paper? It's a bit hard to tell from the photos, but they are very lovely - well done! Thanks so much!
Cheri- no problem :). For the ornament base I used paper mâché ornaments from Hobby Lobby that were super cheap. I then used Mod Podge matte finish to cover each star with scrapbook paper... Thinner works better for this part than a card stock weight paper because it bends more easily around the star shape. I then used Mod Podge to add the star and number to the backs and the pictures to the front. I used a variety of mostly solid color scrapbook paper with more subtle patterns to make the pictures patchwork style.. No patterns, I just free handed them. Once it was all in place, I sealed it with 2-3 thin coats of Mod Podge. I then used a hot glue gun to attach ribbon all around the edge of the star (this gave me flexibility with the first step of covering the star since the edges didn't have to be perfect) To save time, you could paint the stars as a background instead of paper. I hope that helps!
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