I recently received a great question from another music teacher asking for some ideas for Christmas gifts for students. I realize it’s kind of late this year, but I thought it would be great to compile a list of ideas that I could put together in a single file and make available here on the blog for any teachers looking for creative, meaningful, and inexpensive gifts to give to their students – either for Christmas or as a year-end gift.
So…if you would be willing to contribute some ideas to the list, send me an e-mail with a description of the gift, a picture (if you have one), a link (if applicable, to any store or website resources needed for acquiring the gift or any parts of it), and your name and website link (if you have one). I’ll compile all the ideas into a master list and post it here as a free download for anyone who wants it!
Last year I got sparkly pipe cleaners and coloured beads. I made treble clefs, with beads at the points where the line crosses over itself, as well as a couple of extra beads for decorations. I made hanging loops with gold string. Inexpensive, fairly quick to make, and my students really liked them.
This year I’m doing something similar, but using a candy cane (approx. 6″ size) as the downstroke of the treble clef and taping on a sparkly pipecleaner to complete the clef. They’re also pretty popular.
I’m looking for a nice little Nutcracker to give to students after their Nutcracker recital this week. (I know, it’s a bit late.)
What a great idea! I look forward to learning from everyone’s creativity
I always give out Christmas goodie bags to my students with music theme items like pencils, pens, bookmarks, rulers, classical music CDs or Christmas music CDs(usually purchase these from Christian Book Distributors, http://www.christianbook.com), rolled sheet music tied with a ribbon, an ornament-making craft, Christmas kisses or dark chocolate, music or Christmas erasers, music bag tags with their names, music playing cards, personalized ornaments, calendar pens, egg shaker rhythm instruments, etc.
I purchase some of these items from http://www.orientaltrading.com and some from http://www.forteachersonly.com). I always try to buy when they offer free shipping or find a coupon code for that and stock up for the year. I’m always on the look-out through the year for more ideas to vary it from year to year.
This year, I found some great gold and silver colored pencils with music notes on them, piano pencil sharpeners (the keys move up and down as you turn the pencil – really cute), and music pencil pop-a-point at the website forteachersonly.com.
Last year, I gave my students cookie cutters (off the internet) in the shape of an eighth note- with a pretty ribbon attached with a loop (so they can hang it on their Christmas trees); and also had them filled with candies, and wrapped it in tulle. This served as a Christmas ornament/ yummy treat/ something for them to do later on- bake cookies! One student brought me a batch of cookies they made with the cutter. Too cute!
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This year, I bought clear glass mugs, and hand painted (with special paint for glass- that needs to be baked in the over afterwards) the student’s name on it and a picture of piano keys and notes. Afterwards, you have to bake it in the oven for 30 minutes- KEY- put the mugs in oven BEFORE you set the temperature, and LEAVE THEM IN the oven until it completely cools. Use the SPECIFIC paint for this, otherwise it won’t work. Afterwards, I filled the mugs with hot chocolate packets/ marshmallows in small ziploc bags/ chocolate balls/ candy canes, and wrapped in cellophane. They loved them!