Jesus Centered Christmas Activity

My favorite Christ-centered Christmas activity is our Jesse Tree Activity! Yes, it's October and I'm talking about Christmas, but I have a very good reason. If you want to do this activity for Christmas you'll need plenty of time to prepare!!

Three years ago, I was looking for a gospel-centered activity to incorporate into our Christmas advent tradition. That's when I found "Jesse Tree Ornaments". The ornament activity can either be done daily during the entire 40-day Advent celebration, or shortened to 25 days. I chose the 25 day Jesse Tree Activity, so that I could turn the ornaments into an Advent Calendar.

How the "Jesse Tree Activity" works:

• Make 25 ornaments and decide how to display them
• Each ornament represents a character from the Bible and has a correlating Scripture
• Each day you take an ornament and read the daily scripture {we do this as a family after dinner}
• After reading the verse, hang the ornament on a Christmas Tree {we have a mini-tree set aside just for our "Jesse Tree"}

Why we love the "Jesse Tree Activity":

• It's a Christ-centered daily activity!
• It walks through scripture from the Old and New Testament, that shows God's sovereignty and how the plan from the beginning was always Jesus {the gift of salvation through faith in Jesus}
• It makes Christmas more than just a day, but a 25 day celebration! Doesn't Jesus deserve that?!

This year I added something new to the Jesse Tree Activity...The Jesus Storybook Bible!
I LOVE reading God's Word from Caleb's Jesus Storybook Bible, so I created an updated version of this activity by using daily readings from the Jesus Storybook Bible. 

I highly encourage you to give this gospel-centered Advent activity a try this Christmas, so I'm giving you the ability to download everything for FREE! Let me know if you try it and what you think!! 

Jesse Tree Activity Schedule {daily readings, ornaments}:

Download for FREE here

Jesse Tree Activity using The Jesus Storybook Bible {not every verse is found in the Jesus Storybook Bible, so you'll need to use your personal Bible as well}:

Download for FREE here

Ordering Pre-Made Ornaments:

• email Larry Lindahl at: llindahl@cableusa.com, with the subject "Jesse Tree Ornaments", for a set of 25 unfinished wood ornaments {this is who I used, and then painted the ornaments myself--$15/set}
• visit Larry Lindahl Woodcrafts' store {you might recognize him from the Martha Stewart show}

  Linked with: Tatertots and Jello, Hey Mommy, Chocolate Milk, Positively Splendid