History of our Jesse Tree

This is our Jesse Tree and we have been using parts of it since 1982! The banner itself had to be replaced since the white background had yellowed through the years. Each individual symbol though, was lovingly made by my dear sister-in-law Marty when my oldest son Theo was just a wee lad.

The Jesse Tree traces the ancestry of Jesus through the Old Testament by emphasizing several ancestors of Jesus. It begins way back in the Garden of Eden on December 1st and culminates with the birth of our Savior on Dec 24th. Each day, we remove a symbol from it's pocket, place it on the tree and read the Biblical story and sing an appropriate hymn verse.

Several years ago, a group of MartinLoopers gathered at a church near here and made Jesse Trees for each family. It was quite a bit of fun -- each person working on a different symbol. It was my job to cut out the red letters for each banner, Jenny sewed the banner itself and I do remember Polly was in charge of John the Baptist who ended up looking very wilderness-dwelling thanks to some wild and crazy hair! I didn't need the symbols since I still had the originals but I took the opportunity to make a Jesse Tree for my 2 sons so they could continue the tradition.