Advent - Jesse Tree

We like doing a Jesse Tree. We like the kids understanding that throughout history, our world has been gearing up for the great event of Christ's comming. That Kings (David) and murderers (Moses) have participated in the story of salvation and pre-figured Christ. That they, too, participate in this universe-shattering event.

This year, a WONDERFUL (and slightly fool-hearty, *Hi, Nancy!*) friend organized a Jesse Tree ornament swap for our homeschool group. We've got 10 families participating, so we'll each make 10 copies of 3 different ornaments.

Below are some website I found to spark our creativity for our ornaments and Nancy's organization for the swap

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Organizing the swap Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3 plus GREAT PICS!
This lady has a post of her own for organizing a swap, so you'll have to go there.
Beautiful felt pillow-type
Recipe for Baker's Clay for ornaments that look like these.
I don't know if these are made from metal or paper, but they're striking from Catholic Company.com
Regular ornaments turned into Jesse Tree Ornaments
These could be printed, colored & laminated or copied onto shrinky dink or someother kewl idea you might have -- great representations fancy, simple (these are the ones we did one year), a little larger ornaments
Printable ornaments that are in color (these are so sweet) and circular ones in color that could be pasted directly onto a juice lid for stability.
Ornaments you can buy (these 3-D ones look very kewl!)
Patterns to purchase for embroidry or cross-stitch -- I think we'll do something similar for one of the ornaments this year.

Letter dated Oct 7th
Ladies, I know this seems early but I've been thinking about the Jesse Tree Idea that was in a Magazine last year. The basic idea is for each family to take one of the ornaments and make the same ornament for each family participating. Then we will have a different ornament made by a different family for each Scripture passage in the Jesse tree....
For example if my family were to be assigned Adam and Eve as our passage and we had 20 families participating we might make 20 apple ornaments. The ornaments can be as simple or as complicated as your family wanted them to be. You might even find what you are looking for already as the perfect ornament at the dollar store/hobby lobby etc. and that would be fine. The
fun is in the surprise and sharing with other families.
The Jesse tree that I usually do with my kids has 28 ornaments with scripture verses to go with each one for each day of advent. (the last 8 being the "O" Antiphons) If we have fewer families who are able to participate then we could either shorten the list or double up the ornaments.
If you think you are interested please let me know so that I can coordinate the number of verses we will have and find a meeting spot/time to swap the ornaments. I will need a definite number by October 20, to figure out the logistics of the swap and so that each family will have time to
complete their ornaments before Advent begins.

Letter Dated Oct 27th
We have 10 families who have agreed to participate in the Jesse Tree ornament Swap. The next step is for each family to choose how many different ornaments they are willing to make. I had a couple of people say they are willing to make 3 different ornaments meaning a total of 30 ornaments that their family will make for the group. If you can only get one set done that's fine.
I've decided to leave the O antiphons out this time around. Maybe next year we can try just those? They are a little bit more difficult to come up with a symbol that makes sense to the little kids. (I may just hang mine with the words as a type of garland on the tree.) If you find my list lacking in anyway feel free to complain. I checked so many different lists that this seemed the best one I could find, it was based on people and I thought the smallest kids could understand the symbols better than some of the lists with abstract concepts and symbols of those (like peace).
Okay so what do you need to do now?
Let me know which ornaments you'd like to do. Remember you'll make a duplicate of the ornament for each family participating. DO NOT START ON YOUR ORNAMENTS until I get back with a definite yes. I will sign everyone up first come first served. I know a couple of you are out of town right now but if I can have people get back to me by Monday Nov 3. I can get the list back some time later that week....

Basic guidelines as you start thinking about what you might want to do
1. Keep them between 1-3 inches so they can fit on a small tree or branch
2. have a way to hang it
3. be as creative as you have time for (you can cheat and buy them already done)
there are no real guidelines for materials . You can use clay, wood, etc... but
we all have small kids....glass might not be too durable.
4. you don't have to have your verse printed on the ornament...it's just for reference
I have read or sometimes just retold the verses to my kids....

I think that's it. If you have any other questions let me know.

1. CREATION
Genesis 1:1-31, 2:1-4

2. ADAM AND EVE
Genesis 3:1-7

3. NOAH
Genesis 6:11-22; 9:8-13

4. ABRAHAM & SARAH
Genesis 12:1-7 and Hebrews 11:8

5. ISAAC & REBECCA
Genesis 22:1-7

6. JACOB & RACHEL
Genesis 28:10-22

7. JOSEPH
Genesis 37:1-4

8. MOSES
Exodus 20:1-17

9. AARON
Exodus 5:22, 11:5

10. JOSHUA
Joshua 6:20

11. SAMSON
Judges 16:21-30

12. RUTH
Ruth 1:15-18

13. JESSE
Isaiah 11:1-2

14. DAVID
Samuel 5:1-5

15. SOLOMON
1 kings 3:3-14

16. ELIJAH
2 Kings 2:11-18

17. ISAIAH
Isaiah 2:4;7:14:9:6-7

18. DANIEL
Daniel 6:10-23

19.JONAH
Jonah 1-4

20. ZECHARIAH & ELIZABETH
Luke 1:5-23

21. JOHN THE BAPTIST
Matthew 3 :1-11

22. ANNE & JOACHIM


23. MARY
Luke 1: 26 - 38

24. JOSEPH OF NAZARETH
Matthew 1:18 - 25

25. STAR OF BETHLEHEM
Matthew 2:1-12

26. SHEPHERDS
Luke 2:8-20

27. ANGEL
Luke 2:8-14

28. JESUS
Luke 2:1-20

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