I wanted to allow my students to not only build community within the studio this Christmas, but I also wanted them to reach out to our community at large. To do this affectively took some planning and input on everyone’s part, and we had to think about Christmas back in September!

I started out by creating a Christmas party online survey for students and parents to fill out. You can find an online survey website that suits your tastes and needs by doing a Google search. I use www.kwiksurveys.com
You can view my survey here.

My students gave dates and times that worked well for them, and there was an overwhelming vote in favor of caroling at a nursing home and having refreshments here at the studio afterwards. They chose not to do a gift exchange, and in today’s tough economy I completely understand.

As musicians my husband and I have ministered at various local nursing homes, so it wasn’t hard to find one who was more than happy to have my students and I sing carols for their residents.

I also knew that filling students up on sweet holiday treats and not allowing them to exert energy would make some very happy parents… This is where we introduce family-friendly Christmas group games. These are also very easy to find online via a Google search. I found our games here.
We played the “Night Before Christmas Memory Game” and “Christmas Carol Pictionary”.

My MTH account came in handy while planning the party, as I added the event to everyone’s online calendar and uploaded lyrics to carols for my students to print before they met me at the nursing home. I was also able to easily contact former students and invite them to join the festivities as well.

So, on December 19 my husband and I made all the treats and prepared the house for the students’ arrival. While I headed to the nursing home to carol, my husband volunteered to stay home and make the hot chocolate, coffee and holiday punch.
We really had a great time together, and I know this will be an anual tradition. When students return to school after the holiday break, they can tell their friends of the fun they had at the Christmas celebration.

How do you celebrate the holidays in your studio? Do you have a Christmas or New Year’s Eve party with your students? Have you found ways to allow your students to share the gift of music with the community? I would love to hear what you’re doing or have done to celebrate the holidays within your music studio!
No matter what you do to celebrate this holiday season, I hope you and your students have a safe and wonderful time with family and friends, and may you have a prosperous year in 2010!

Students in grades 3-5 can learn basic singing techniques during our Disney Day sing-along, and they can also learn how to sing harmony in our rounds workshop. Junior high and high school students can broaden their horizons with Broadway, and our rounds workshop is available to them as well. Starting with junior high students, we also have a workshop that explores the meanings and emotions behind the lyrics of a song. This idea of unwrapping the package of a song culminated into a six week course on Song writing. The Song writing course is available to junior high, high school and adult students. Adult students can also participate in our rounds workshop and unwrapping the package of a song.

Other than the six week course on song writing, these workshops are 45-60 minutes, so participants can learn and have fun without being overwhelmed or quickly losing interest. I’m opening registration within the next month, and the first set will begin in January. In future articles on this topic, I’ll talk about the format and plans I have for each workshop. Do you offer group lessons or workshops in your studio? Do you open them to the public? How has this worked or not worked for you? I’d love any feedback you have, so please post in the comments section below.