We clicked into gear with our Advent activities today. Our little tinsel Christmas tree has been transformed from a plain old Jesse tree to an Advent tree with the addition of some purple baubles and a purple chain. We are replacing our old Jesse tree symbols (white card discs) with these purple and gold tree-shaped Christmas gift tags. We drew the first six symbols (two each) on tags and coloured them with watercolour pencils. This time we are keying the symbols to the stories in The Jesse Tree by Geraldine MacCaughrean. So far so good, except that we never got round to reading today's story!
This is how the tree looked with the tags ...
Next year I want to replace the tree - ideally I would like a branch, but if I can't find a suitable one then I think I might opt for a white Christmas tree as the purple decorations would show up better than they do on the green. It will also need to be a little bigger. By the time we have 24 symbols on this little tree it is going to be decidedly overcrowded.
This year for the first time I caved in and bought a chocolate Advent calendar. I was able to find this one, which has a Nativity scene, short sentences under the flaps telling the Nativity story, and chocolates which are Divine by name and divine by nature. And they are fairtrade chocolates to boot! Our little row of sadly undecorated Advent candles sit in front of the calendar.
Today was also our "Stir-up Monday" and we now have four Christmas puddings lined up cooling in the kitchen.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Come, Lord Jesus!
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6 comments:
Your Jesse Tree symbols are great. I love how you tied the purple into the symbols. Great idea.
I like the Jesse Tree Ornaments! Marianna and I might have to pay a visit to KMart today, I hear Martha has a line of purple this year. I'll bet that crafty lady has nametags to match and that would simplify one more Advent thing - hurray!
The tags were just a lucky find. I didn't actually think of purple Jesse tree symbols until I saw them. I spotted them when I was looking for wrapping paper and (surprisingly, given my general state of brain fog!) it suddenly clicked ... purple + tree = Advent tree. I bought four packs of eight, so I have enough left over to make extra ornaments for Advent saints.
Katherine this is a great idea for a Jesse/Advent tree! If you placed the advent candles in front of the tree, it would make the elegant simplicity of the candles go well with the tree!
Next year, you could make a dowel tree -- graduated lengths of dowel or sticks attached to a center stick and stuck in a flowerpot. We did this one year and it was pretty cool -- the bareness of the "tree" made the ornaments/symbols really stand out....
Blessings for a holy and happy Advent.
Well done on the puddings!
My favourite branch for the sort of thing you mentioned is either silver birch, very architectural, or corkscrew hazel or willow. Just for future reference!
Dorothy
What great ideas!
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