Getting Started with your Jesse Tree!
If you’re leading your children through this Advent Activity – Congratulations!!
You are called and capable to lead others to the God of the BIBLE – and you are in God’s Will!
As Peter says:
“For you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession.
As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light!”
1 Peter 2:9
See? You are called to reveal God to others! You are God’s royal priests - go and tell others about Him!
The Jesse Tree Poster is for anyone to enjoy, and hopefully this devotional can become a family tradition to be used year after year!
The website is for you to fill yourself with knowledge and tools and to share with your children about each day’s topic.
Supplies Needed
It’s ALL ABOUT the Poster!
With the Jesse Tree Poster it’s easy to do a God-Centered Devotion – each leaf is His Story!
Just recognizing the character’s name and symbol inside the leaf is a success!
You’ll need a poster! It’s available on this website in 2 convenient sizes “for print at home” LARGE 17” x 22” or SMALL 11” x 17”
This poster makes an easy keepsake. Afterwards it folds up and can be stored in your child’s ornament box or with Christmas decorations.
Markers
Get out a good set of markers, crayons, or colored pencils to use for this activity so that you don’t need to go searching for them each night.
If possible, each child should have their own coloring set in a Christmas basket or box sitting out for the Christmas season, each night they may all want to use the same colors.
tape
Have your child decide where to hang up the tree.
Each year we have our Jesse Tree Posters hung up in our hallway, near their bedrooms.
If you have more than 1 child, it seems to work best if the posters are all hung in the same area.
B-I-B-L-E
Have Bible(s) out & near the poster!
Have a Prayer spot - have a place to pray each night if you don’t already.
You COULD have a Christmas basket filled with your coloring tools, and a Bible that sits out near the posters the whole devotional/Christmas season.
1 family had a charger plate with LED candles, marker boxes, & each child’s Bible out.
The Activity
Look at the leaf to be colored in for that day’s date. (this leaf may not be on the current year’s poster)
The number on the leaf (30 on this leaf) is how many days until Christmas, Jesus’s birth. The date (November 25 on this leaf) is the date you should be on that day.
Talk about the picture, and how it relates to the Bible, and anything you know of the story. If this is all you do with your child - consider the whole thing a SUCCESS!
This little act of coloring the leaves in - in anticipation for Christmas - will be memorable, even if this is all you do!
Trust me on this!
For fun videos and other resources, go the website & click on the tab: Devotional. Each Day has it’s own page, click on the appropriate icon for that day. (The Jesse Tree Day 30 for this leaf’s information)
If you or your child are not in the mood for the devotion on any given night, just color in the leaf - or do it the next day.
Just doing this for all the leaves would be a wonderful experience to grow on!
Don’t worry about the depth of your devotion; just doing something focused on God will be worthwhile – these are Biblical characters, His Word will not come back void! If this tree is hanging up and they are just using it as a tool to countdown during this special season, I believe it will be purposeful! Don’t be discouraged!
My favorite thing about this yearly activity is that in all the holiday busyness, we are helping to prepare them to know & realize that it is GOD that gave the greatest gift!
Building knowledge and an awareness of God takes many years – be patient and faithful to share Jesus with your children.
Every year the completed poster gets saved and put away with Christmas Decorations — these are treasured remembrances of our Christmas seasons over the years.
