Names of Jesus Advent Ornaments {Christ-Centered Christmas Series}

For the last post in this year’s Christ-Centered Christmas Series, I wanted to share one of our family’s favorite traditions. I hope you enjoy!

Our First Christmas Tradition

When I was researching Christmas traditions for my son’s first Christmas, one of the first things I came across was this post. I immediately fell in love with the idea. Twenty-five ornaments. Twenty-five names of Jesus. Twenty-five days of Advent. In the post, she had made their ornaments with her son, but I knew that I wanted our ornaments to be made from something fairly sturdy if they were going to outlast the toddler years. After some brainstorming, I decided to sew them. I found a tutorial for using your home printer to print on fabric and set to work making the simple ornaments. I used a list like this, and narrowed down 25 names for our ornaments. Here are the ones I used…

Lion of Judah (Rev 5:5)
Alpha and Omega (Rev 1:8)
Light of the World (John 8:12)
Living Water (John 4:10)
Messiah (John 4:25-26)
The Word (John 1:1)
Judge (2 Timothy 4:8)
The Vine (John 15:5)
Lamb of God (John 1:29)
Cornerstone (1 Peter 2:6-7)
Savior (Luke 2:11)
Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6)
The Good Shepherd (John 10:11)
The Great Physician (Luke 9:11)
Living One (Rev 1:18)
Bread of Life (John 6:35)
The Way, The Truth, and The Life (John 14:6)
The Bridegroom (Matthew 9:15)
Immanuel (Matthew 1:23)
I AM (John 8:58)
Teacher (Matthew 23:10)
Gift of God (John 3:16)
Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53:11)
Son of Man (Mark 10:33)
King of Kings (Rev 17:14)

That first Christmas, just a few days shy of 1 year old, K absolutely loved our nightly ritual of hanging our ornaments on the tree. Both that year and the next we were staying with my in-laws, so Grandma, Papaw, and Auntie C would join us each night as we chose an ornament and read the verse. Little K didn’t grasp the significance of the names, but would clap and jump and dance each night when we put another ornament on the tree.

A Continuing Tradition

This year, K is just shy of three years old and it’s only mom and dad and himself reading the ornaments each night. Most of the names and metaphors are still over his head, but there has been some beautiful moments born out of this nightly tradition that takes a mere ten minutes.

One of the first that comes to mind was when one day I had K pick two ornaments out of the bag to put on the tree in order to catch up from days we had missed over the weekend. I read the names and, planning to just skip the verses, told him to hang them on the tree. He immediately responded, looking a little distraught: “But we have to read the story!” He then went and got me my Bible and listened as I read the verses. It was a humbling experience for me. I had mistakenly assumed that his little three year old mind wasn’t taking in all that we were doing. But, in reality, he was soaking it up.

The other fun thing has been watching his little mind work so hard to try and grasp what these names mean. Most of the time he just gets a puzzled look, but when it clicks, it clicks. Two that he has really latched onto this year are Savior and Lion of Judah. He drew the Lion of Judah shortly after learning about Daniel and the Lion’s Den, so he already had lions on the brain. He was pretty excited to learn that Jesus is mighty and powerful like a Lion. He is also fairly superhero obsessed, so when I explained that a Savior is someone who saves people (like a superhero) he was also very excited! He always picks up on the word when he hears it on the radio and a smile breaks out on his face and he says “Is this a Savior song?!”

This year of Advent Ornaments is drawing to a close and we are enjoying the final days. I look forward to next year and to many years in the future. These names carry so much meaning and truth and it is an honor and a privilege to teach them to my children. If you are looking for a simple and meaningful Advent tradition I hope that you will consider giving this one a try!

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