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Posted by Rebecca Teti in Family on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 4:58 PM
Since the lovely tradition of the Jesse tree has come up in two recent posts, I thought I’d point out that the resources for organizing a Jesse Tree Craft Swap are available at the National Catholic Register’s Resources page.
Faith & Family magazine subscribers may recall the feature I did in last year’s Advent edition. The premise is a solution for those who like the Jesse Tree devotion but are not that interested in the “craft” dimension. Recruit some families from among your parish or homeschool group and do a craft swap. Each family makes multiple editions of the same one ornament, then you gather on a given day to trade.
Everyone goes home with a complete set of Jesse Tree ornaments, reusable from year to year.
Every family does Advent differently, of course, but we put our tree up the first Sunday of Advent, undecorated. The first ornaments on the tree are those for the Jesse Tree, with the rest going up only right before Christmas (the precise day varying according to when the extended family is due in town).
My friend Jolene, from whom I cribbed this idea, and who created the resources linked at NCR, makes new Jesse Tree ornament sets each year to give as gifts.(Sometimes, elves will make your ornaments for you!)
Last year, the article inspired some of our readers to do Jesse Tree craft swaps with their online communities. Here’s a post about that. And even better, here’s a post with photos of some of the results. And more photos from a different blogger here.
Of course, nothing says you have to do a Jesse Tree if it doesn’t work for your family. But we like it.
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Lisa R, I highly recommend the Jesse Tree Banner Kit from Leaflet Missal ( leafletonline.com ITEM #12782 $21.00) Everything you need is there, just cut out everything & glue. If your children are old enough they could help out making it, too.
Rebecca, I *love* the idea of a Jesse Tree Craft Swap. I’ll have to try joining one next year. I really enjoy crafting (knitting, sewing, paper crafts) & swapping so that would be a perfect project for me. We actually don’t do a Christmas tree, we only have a Jesse Tree (the banner type mentioned above), our children look forward to all the Bible reading & Bible stories that go along with it every night during Advent.
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