For our family, the Jesse Tree has been a fun way to focus on God's foresight, love, and grace in the matters of men as we remember the world's first "advent" of waiting for Christ from creation until His Birth.
Ignoring the official church calendar for Advent, we usually begin our Jesse Tree tradition Dec. 1st by finding a large branch that each of the ornaments will rest upon in the coming days and weeks. We will start out with, "In the beginning" and have a globe ornament as representation. typically we eat dinner and then sit in the living room by the Advent wreath where we will light the 1st candle. We then talk about ornaments we have already talked about. Mostly it is Preston telling us in his words what each one means. We then in story form explain the new ornament and let him hang it on the tree. Afterward we sing a song and we each pick someone or something we can pray for other than ourselves a neighbor, family member, someone in need etc. We end the evening by letting Preston blow out the candle. Since Preston is just shy of turning 4 we try to keep the whole thing to about 30 min. 
I have come to LOVE the season of ADVENT! It is a meaningful time for our family. My favorite thing about this is watching Preston light up with excitement while telling us what each ornament means. 
May the peace of God be evident in your house during this powerful season. For unto us a child is born. Later I will share some new traditions that we have begun this year and are excited to carry out in the years to follow. What are some of your favorite traditions that are meaningful for your children?
For us it was inspiring that you shared this tradition last year. we started telling the sories from creation to Jesus' birth to Jardo during the last two months. This year we didn't make it be a tradition. We will do that maybe next year (when he is old enough for this kind of setting). This year we had a song with a part for every candle of the advent wreath. He loved it and it was totally important to him to always have the candles lighted while singing the song!
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