This year, I wanted to do more than read the Christmas story over and over in the days leading up to Christmas. So after looking around a bit, I decided to turn our Thanksgiving stick tree into a Jesus tree that would help us celebrate and remember who Jesus was (and is). Just like celebrating birthdays are more than remembering the birth story, so celebrating Jesus’ birthday became more about his life than about his birth. Some days were decidedly un-Christmas-y. Other days were really fun (like when we played flashlight hide-and-seek).
I love that this led all of us to worship Christ, no matter what age we are.
The basic framework led us through Jesus as the Son of God, Son of man, a humble servant, and savior of the world. Each day the kids would open up the ornament for the day and we’d read a story to help us understand more about Jesus. Some days we did other activities if we had time, forethought, and energy.
Week 1: Jesus is the Son of God
- Because God said so. Jesus is baptized. (Matthew 3:17)
- Because he is strong like God. Jesus calms the storm. (Matthew 8:23)
- Because he was with God during creation. The creation story. (John 1, Genesis 1, Colossians 1:16)
- Because people said so. Jesus and Peter walk on the water. (Matthew 14)
- Because he is worthy of worship and only God is worthy of worship. (Revelation 5:12-13, Exodus 20:3-4) This was a great day to sing “O Come All Ye Faithful” and other worship songs.
- Because Jesus can forgive sin. Jesus forgives and heals a paralytic. (Matthew 9:1-8)
- Because Jesus said so. Jesus stays in the temple when he’s 12 years old. (Luke 2:41-52) You can see Caleb’s version of the story here.
Week 2: Jesus is the Son of Man.
- Mary’s son. An angel visits Mary. (Luke 1:26-38)
- Adopted by Joseph. Learned carpentry from Joseph.
- Became tired, hungry, and thirsty. Jesus is tempted in the desert. (Luke 4)
- Sympathizes with our weaknesses. (Hebrews 4:15-16)
Week 3: Jesus is a humble servant.
- Came as a dependent baby. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus running to Egypt to escape King Herod. (Matthew 2:13-23)
- Born in a barn.
- Announced to shepherds.
- Washed the disciples’ feet. (john 13)
- Died on the cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)
Week 4: Jesus is the Savior of the world.
- Rescuer. I told my salvation story.
- Lamb. The story of the first Passover. I used a chapter from One Wintry Night by Ruth Bell Graham.
- Savior. Another telling of the gospel. by the way, this is supposed to be a parachute, but it hangs upside down on the tree. The parachute has been tested, and it does work.
- Door/Gate. (John 10:9, John 14:6) We reviewed the heaven craft we did in preschool.
- Redeemer. Caleb got to redeem some pop cans at the grocery store. He chose to keep the coins instead of buying something with them.
- Shepherd. Psalm 23.
- Light. We played flashlight hide-and-seek. Caleb begged and begged to play it again the next night, so we did.
- King. (Philippians 2:9-11, Revelation 5:12-13 again)
- Emmanuel. God with us. We were traveling on this day and I didn’t implement any of my ideas. One idea was to hang a prism and talk about how we can’t see God, but we can see what he does. I could also use a picture of a neighborhood. We’ll see what we end up doing next year!
My goal in doing this isn’t to create a regimented tradition, but to do something that will lead us into a deeper relationship with Christ.
