Do you enjoy giving some kind of small gift to your piano students at Christmastime? I don’t feel it’s something we as piano teachers should feel obligated to do. But if it’s something you enjoy, I think it’s a nice gesture! I look forward to coming up with something different each year.
[Click here to see gift ideas from past years!]
This year, inspired by a photo I saw on Instagram, I decided to seek out a local bakery to make some pretty piano cookies for my students. I requested quotes from two bakeries and was thrilled when the first one gave me a rate that was reasonable enough for my budget. I placed my order and couldn’t wait for the pick-up date to arrive.
Over the weekend, I picked up my cookie order. I was so thrilled and pleased with how they turned out! Aren’t they pretty?!
Aria, my constant sidekick, “helped” me put the cookies into individual baggies.
I couldn’t be happier with how these turned out!
Something else new I decided to try this year was to order custom pens with my studio logo. I thought it might be fun to include these pens in the Christmas gift this year, as well as to use around the studio and give out to new students when they join. I ordered through CustomInk.com, which has been a great company to work with in the past when I’ve done T-shirts for my students. The pens turned out nicely! It’s a good thing, because CustomInk.com have a minimum of 300 for pen orders. I will be well stocked for at least a few years! 😉
I also gave each student one of our family photo cards. To add a personal touch, I typed up a short holiday greeting printed onto sticky notes. (Did you know you can print onto sticky notes? It’s so handy for all kinds of projects! To learn how, check out this blog post.)
I packaged everything into bubble wrap mailers to send to my online students back in Ohio.
In my studio, I set up an area for my in-person students to receive their gifts. I’m excited to see my students’ faces when they see the cookies!
After all that hard work, Aria and I were ready to try out a cookie! It was our reward after a job well done. 🙂
[Check out the video version of this blog post here on Instagram!]
Your turn: Did you plan to give out students gifts this year? If so, what did you come up with? I invite you to leave a comment!
I love the piano cookie this year! I always try and find a new music themed ornament every year and I include that in whatever treat bag, box or mug I can find that year. Depending on the age of my students I include a little novelty toy and a few pieces of holiday themed candy – and of course a couple of small candy canes. This year I found adorable fold up boxes on Amazon for the younger students. I usually send out our family Christmas cards by mail, even to my student’s families. Although, I should start rethinking that with postage up to 58 CENTS! I am considering ordering those pens you purchased, but that is an awfully large minimum order!
Hi Jill! Thanks for sharing all of that! If you do decide to consider pens but don’t want to deal with a 300 minimum order, I wouldn’t hesitate to explore other companies. For example, some of the pen options on the Office Depot website have a more reasonable minimum (but it depends on the pen). This one, for example, has a minimum order of 150: https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/640643/Customized-Pearl-Stylus-Pen/ There’s lots of cool pens to browse through! (Side note: I learned the hard way that you cannot order custom pens in-store at Office Depot. They will just send you to the website!)
Love those cookies! Just beautiful! And the pens are useful too. I did that a few years ago. This year, I gave out pencils, mini Christmas erasers and candy canes. I think next year, I’ll personalize the pencils with my studio info.
Your daughter is so sweet ! Such a cutie.
Thanks so much, Susan! I got the idea to do pens from a local teacher back in Ohio who used to order a different fancy pen design for her students every Christmas. Her students used to really look forward to seeing what that year’s pen would look like each Christmas! That teacher has since passed away, but her daughters were kind enough to pass along some of the leftover pens to me and her other piano teacher colleagues as a way to remember her. <3
Hi Joy! Love the cookies!!! Flute cookies may be odd!! Each year I give my students an ornament with a music theme, toes to a candy cane. I struggled finding ornaments this year, but found them on Oriental Trading Company site! Past student who are now married have multiples me ornaments that hang on their tree!! I love hearing that!!! Merry Christmas to your darling family!!
Hi, Bonnie! So nice to hear from you!! The music-themed ornament idea is so great, and how neat to hear that your past students now adults are still enjoying them! <3 Thanks for posting, and Merry Christmas to you and your family too!!
I used your idea of the snowmen ornaments from Amazon. I put the year and signed my name on the back. Each student also gets a candy bar. Love the pen idea! Have a wonderful Christmas.
Very nice, Kathy! Thanks for sharing, and I wish you a very merry Christmas as well!
I will be curious to know if the cookies make it through the mail without breaking. How many online students do you have?
Hi Anna, The cookies are pretty sturdy, but I wrapped them in a little bit of bubble wrap inside a bubble mailer just in case. One family today let me know their package arrived, and the cookies were totally intact! I current teach 10 families online.
For my students’ gifts this year, I purchased plain black mittens and used glittery gold squeezable fabric paint to draw a bass clef on the left mitten and a treble clef on the right mitten. It was easy, fast, and they turned out so nice! I also added a little assortment of Christmas candy in the bag with the mittens.
So fun!! I did that a couple of years ago for my students and they turned out so cute! I used white fabric paint, but I almost wish I would’ve used glittery gold like you did. 🙂 I bet they looked great. Thanks for sharing, Annie!
I am a knew to piano teaching so I am open to any ideas. This year though I made candy sleds for all my students. They are little 6 chocolate bars and a kitkat glue gunned to two candy canes and tied with a ribbon. It’s something easy, but kind of neat looking.
That sounds so cute, Anna! Thanks for sharing that idea!!
so many great ideas here! This year I purchased large black canvas bags on Amazon for each student. I found some on sale with 2 per package. Then using my Cricut machine and iron -on vinyl, I cut out grand pianos and my Studio Name then ironed them on each of the bags. it took some time, but my students loved them. I also put in a pencil personalized with my studio name on it.
What a great idea, Diane! I’m sure your students were thrilled!