Both of these beautiful wall hangings were made by Auntie Dottie and Christmas would just not be Christmas without them....
When Isaac was tiny I decided I wanted to have an advent calendar that we could use every year and which did not involve chocolate!!
I had in mind a wall hanging perhaps made out of felt with felt figures that we could put on it and make a nativity scene, a bit like a flannelgraph I guess.... I mentioned my idea to Dot and within no time at all she had come up with this amazing calendar.
My kids love picking out a character each day and building up the story of Christmas until, on December 25th, Jesus is placed in the stable and the scene is complete.
The Jesse Tree was something I read about maybe four years ago now and just thought the idea of reading a story each day in December, building up a picture of events and stories in the Old Testament leading up to the birth of Jesus, was something that would capture my children.... and it surely did.
The first year we read this book (we read The Jesse Tree by Geraldine MacCaughrean but there are numerous versions of different stories you can use for a Jesse Tree on the internet) the children drew their own symbols and placed them on a small Christmas tree which we set up specially for their artwork.
However, in our second year of reading this book we had this fabulous wall hanging made specially (again by Auntie Dottie) on which to hang symbols relating to each story from the book. Some of the symbols I made out of fimo, some from clay and others were buttons with the shank chopped off. I stitched leaf buttons onto the tree, enough so that each symbol has its own place to hang.
All the symbols live in a special Christmas tin and, one by one, day by day, they make their way onto the tree to remind us of some very special stories which we never tire of hearing....
....until the tree is full and we celebrate Christmas day with the final story from the book.
What traditions do you have at Christmas time?
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