One of our family traditions is doing Jesse Trees during the Christmas season.

A Jesse Tree is just a series of scriptures that takes you through the Old Testament and shows you how the Old Testament points to the birth of Jesus.

When we do our Jesse Trees, we read a Bible Scripture. We have a little drawing that depicts the Scripture. They then cut the picture out and hang it on their Jesse Tree.

In this photo, the children are all coloring their Jesse Trees. I take a roll of brown paper, cut out pieces for each child and draw a tree on it. They then color the tree in. We tape it somewhere in the kitchen (sliding glass door, cabinets, refrigerator). Each day, they glue an ornament to their Jesse tree.

It’s an easy tradition that the children love. I enjoy seeing each year how much better the children’s drawings get. Last year, we had the oldest 3 draw a picture rather than just coloring one in. We’ll probably do the same this year.

This photo was their finished Jesse tree from 3 years ago. That was the last year we had just one tree for them to put their ornaments on. You couldn’t even see the tree when they were done! But they were very proud of it.

I love our traditions!