November 29, 2010

Free Christmas Devotional

If you are looking for a wonderful way to make Christmas meaningful I highly recommend a Jesse Tree. Our family has been doing this for several years now and we love it!

You can download a free Jesse Tree Advent Devotion when you subscribe via email or RSS to Ann Voscamp's blog (which is wonderful by the way!). The download includes readings for each day as well as printable ornaments.

Our Family's Jesse tree
(from a couple years ago)

What is a Jesse Tree?

It's simply a Christmas countdown. You can start with Advent (first Sunday of Advent was yesterday) or you can just start on December 1st. Each day read a short Bible passage and devotional then hang an ornament. There are many websites out there to give you ideas and there is no "right" way. Each family does it a bit differently.

There are "kits" you can buy, but it is easy to just make your own. The ornaments can be printed (like from the download above) or if you get real creative you can buy items to hang as ornaments that are a bit more three dimensional (like a mini-globe, twine, etc.). The tree itself can be a branch that is secured in a pot or you can use a mini-Christmas tree. That is what we do and it works well. Some people just put the Jesse tree ornaments on their regular Christmas tree.

If you are interested, here are some additional links:
Jesse Tree Instructions, Devotions, and Printable Ornaments
Jesse Tree with Printable Ornaments
Additional Advent Resource (including Jesse Tree)

Freebie link via Money Saving Mom. Her post can be found here.

1 comment:

TheBargainSleuth said...

My brother and sister are doing this with their three boys; they made shrinky dink ornaments. :-)