What do you do for your students at Christmas?

Last year I bought an assortment of Kingsize candy bars and gift wrapped each one.

One year I made baggies of "snowman soup". In a ziplock baggie, I put a package of hot cocoa, small candy cain, and a few chocolate chips. I attached a poem about snowman soup and being a good student all year. I will have to look for that again.

Anyone have any other good ideas?

What I've done the past several years is to go to Hobby Lobby and buy three dozen ornaments (usually similar style--drums, stars, balls--but one dozen red, one dozen green, one dozen gold). Then I printed out "Performer 2008" (or whatever year) in a fancy font on sparkly paper (small enough to print 36 times on the same page). I cut out the "Performer 2008" rectangles, glue each to a folded-over piece of ribbon, and thread the wire ornament hanger through the ribbon. I hang the ornaments on a small tree in the reception hall, and after the recital students are invited to choose an ornament and keep it as their gift from me, and as a souvenir of their performance.

Students' families love this--some have 5 consecutive years of ornaments, and I like to think that when they're grown up & have kids of their own they'll have that reminder of those recitals!

What neat ideas! I've never given gifts because I thought it would get way to expensive, but these seem like inexpensive but thoughtful alternatives.

My boss always made us all homemade hot chocolate mix presented in a ball jar from an Alton Brown recipe (has a little cayenne in it for warmth!) and gave us the recipe too. I started copying that and wow, how well received that is! And not really expensive, maybe $3 per person if you buy with coupons and do a bunch at once.

Can you post that recipe? Thanks

Oops, forgot to quote. Can you post this recipe? Thanks

Sure thing!

Alton's Hot Cocoa with a kick...

You can really bring the spice down if you think it will be too much for kids, but adult usually love it as it is written. Really nice on super cold day!

Oh, note: it really does take a LOT of mix per mug, so take this into consideration when choosing jars!

Thanks. THis is a great gift idea for school teachers and my husbands very large family. It also something I could put together soon and not be so rushed at christmas.

Yeah, and if you want to be cute you can layer it with baby marshmallows! Of course, I would do that closer to the holiday. As is the stuff will keep forever!

Have fun!

I have a tradition (read: boring? non-creative?) of giving the same gifts each year. My adults and teens get a holiday mug filled with a few assorted tea bags and a few chocolates. I typically get the mugs at the dollar store to keep costs low.

The kids get a holiday pencil and candy cane attached with ribbon to a baggie of assorted holiday chocolates.

The mugs are wrapped in holiday tissue or cellophane. These look festive, and all of the gifts are individually gift tagged.

I like to give my students CDs of classical piano music. Most are never going to attend an actual piano concert or hear a top level artist perform solo or with an orchestra, so this is a way for them to hear music they'd never hear otherwise. You can find inexpensive CDs by fine artists in the $5 range or do like I did last year, and order a batch from Amazon.com of the Sony historic masters of the piano.

By the way, the expense is covered in their Registration Fee. The gift is finding the right music!

Many of these ideas were given out at the end of recitals, but I've also given them out at the last lesson before Christmas break. I've given:

CD's about $8 or under: such as "Nutcracker". One year I bought posters from the local ballet of the same, rolled them and tied them with a ribbon. As the art work changed each year, this was doable as a gift for the new students year after year. I felt as long as there was music from the ballet in the recital, that was a valid gift. Sometimes the criteria was that the person receiving the poster had to have performed a piece from the ballet.

Alfred's "Essential Music Dictionary" a small handbook ($5.95)

Composer Stickers in a sheet - then adhered to poster board and plastic wrapped at the frame shop with a hanger on the back for "art" on the wall.

Books of music from "Border's" or "Barnes & Noble" that were on sale with children's songs or Christmas music. Usually about $5.
I'd buy up a bunch and give the same gift to similarly aged children or by level, sometimes as rewards for accomplishments. These books are in abundance on the "sale" tables well before Christmas.

The other thing we did for many, many years is that I would provide the (shirt size) boxes and everyone brought cookies for refreshments at our Holiday Recital and went home with a box of cookies per student. I also made it a point to give grandparents a box to fill from the refreshment table because of their loving support and attendance. You'd be surprised how many grandparents pay the tuition for music lesson.

Another thing that could be done, I've always wanted to do this is to take pictures of the kids at the piano lesson (posed or candid) and copy them with their own photo with a little note, and hang all students in a display area on the wall or in frames throughout the studio. I do provide copies of candids taken at recitals for them with a note. One can't have enough "scrapbook" materials whether they are the teacher or the piano student, parents, or grandparents.

Like John, I use the "Registration Fee" paid annually as a "kitty" for gift giving in my studio, along with piano tuning, recital facility rentals, expenses of the office and studio.

Betty Patnude

Or you could combine the ideas here and put their piano photos in an ornament frame! Put it on the tree and they take it when they leave before break...Great ideas!

I can see a little tree covered in these now....at $4 a piece, that's not too bad!
ornaments

I found Christmas CD's one year for .99 a piece. I bought enough for every student. One mom, also a friend, asked how I could manage to give everyone a CD. I also give all graduating students a CD.

My gift giving has changed over the years from home made ornaments to store bought ornaments to gift certificates at the local theater. One year everyone got gloves. I have several students in the neighborhood who walk to their lessons and their hands would be ice cold in the winter.

The arrival of the Alfred Christmas catalog Saturday reminded me that I always give students a gift of a Christmas Album; we start working on selections in November, so that by Christmas, they will have several pieces ready for the "big day."

If you can afford it for one year. Try and buy thier Christmas gifts after Christmas, when everything is 50% off or more, than you can get a better gift for the same price you spent last year. The down side is you have to buy a few more than the students you have in case you pick up extra students the following year and want to make sure you have enough. But it has worked well for me.

Great tip. My problem is where to store all the stuff!

I'm getting these "It's Time to Practice" clocks for my students this year. I have one and my students love it- $3.95 each

www.pianoatpepper.com/5987974.item

funnyfingers, I love the clock. When you have a family with more than one student do you get each student a clock or one per family?