Prepare for Jesus’ birth by creating your own Jesse Tree with your children!

Each day, December 1-25, read the designated Bible story and then put the symbolic ornament on your Christmas tree or on a specially designated Jesse Tree—a mini-evergreen, a wire or metal tree, a garland on your staircase or fireplace mantel, etc.

As the days go by, encourage the children to find other ornaments on the Jesse Tree and review the stories associated with them. Each story gets us closer to the birth of Jesus!

Consider making the Jesse Tree part of your Christmas celebration as well. Intersperse gift opening with Bible story telling. For extra fun, tape a small treat to the back of each ornament. The children can eat the treat after they’ve told the story.


Download stories

Download color ornaments – 1 per page
Download color ornaments – 6 per page

Download colorable ornaments – 1 per page
Download colorable ornaments – 6 per page

We hope you find the Bible stories and Advent ornaments a meaningful way to prepare for the coming of Jesus, the Branch from Jesse’s tree, this Christmas!

Thanks to our writing team: Grace Brown MLC ’24; Morgan Gosch MLC ’22; Mercedes Kuil MLC ’22; Julie Marker MLC ’21; Catherine St. John, preprimary lead teacher at MLC Early Childhood Learning Center; Laurie Gauger-Hested, writer/editor; Nicholas Schmoller, theological editor; Heidi Schoof, copy editor.