Here’s what I gave my students for Christmas this year:
A Symphony chocolate bar, and a personalized glass ornament.
I found the glass ornaments at a craft store (Hobby Lobby). On each ornament, I wrote the student’s name and “2011” on the ornament using a paint pen. I put colorful confetti and pieces of old sheet music inside each ornament. I thought they turned out cute!
For my adult students, I bought music dictionaries. The A to Z of Foreign Musical Terms
is my favorite music dictionary. I don’t mind spending a little extra on the adult students to get something they would really use and appreciate. 🙂
Published by Joy Morin
Joy Morin, MM, is a teacher, pianist, composer, speaker, and writer of a blog at ColorInMyPiano.com. A devoted teacher and lifelong learner, she teaches students of all ages at her independent piano studio near Ann Arbor, Michigan. Joy is a frequent attendee and presenter at conferences and workshops, and enjoys connecting with fellow piano teachers through her blog and beyond.
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Soooo cute….I think that is what I might do for next year!! Where do you get the old music paper?
I have tons of old sheet music sitting around, mostly stuff that old ladies from church gave me. It’s falling apart and unusable, except for craft projects like this one! 🙂 You could check thrift stores perhaps. You could also print sheet music pdfs from imslp.org, although the paper won’t be a lovely aged golden color. 🙂
What a gift idea. I love symphonies!
What a lovely idea! It inspires me to be more generous with my students. After a few years of printed sheet music i ran out of ideas this year (and time) and just gave a candy cane:/ Thanks for sharing your ideas!!
Could you tell me what size the ornaments were? I’d like to do the same thing but didn’t know how small was too small to write the kiddos’ names on. Thanks!
My local craft store had three sizes available: 2 5/8”, 3 1/4”, or 4”. I think I bought the medium size. The large ones would certainly work fine, and maybe the little ones too. I don’t think it would be difficult to write their names on any of the sizes. Good luck!
I’m very inspired by your ideas! I love your site so much, it has helped me a lot with my teaching, so thank you for putting the time to do this!
where did you get the symphony chocolates?
Look in the candy aisle at your local grocery store. They often have Symphony bars near the large Hershey chocolate bars. I had trouble finding them too — but they were there at both Wal-Mart and Meijers in my town.
I’m sure that the students will treasure these ornaments. They certainly look marvelous! Could you give me an estimate of the cost?
Forgot to mention that you can make your own music paper look old Try these ideas http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Paper-Look-Old
I am using your glass ornament idea for my piano and voice students this year, but the confetti I bought is too wide to fit into the ornaments’ openings. Where did you get the confetti in the picture? HELP! Gotta get these made soon! Or any other ideas where to get/order 1/4-inch confetti pieces.
Thanks!
Love your ideas! Thank you!
Love your idea for holiday gifts, Joy! Would you give ornament gifts to your Jewish students who don’t put up Christmas trees? I think I only have a few like that. Most of them put up trees. Just not sure about that… (My students love the gel highlighter gifts!!)
Hi Laurie! I haven’t run into that situation before. Maybe they’d appreciate the ornament gift regardless, to decorate elsewhere in their house — but if I wasn’t sure, I would probably research or even ask the parents first. If they weren’t comfortable with it, I would come up with a different gift for those students. 🙂
Thanks for mentioning gel highlighters — that is a great gift idea for students!!