Christmas is the perfect season for adding music appreciation to your home school. There are so many wonderful hymns and songs that accompany this season, and it is a great way to mix learning with Christmas fun. There are so many wonderful resources, but I wanted to share the resources that we are using in our home for music appreciation this Christmas season.
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Hymn Studies
Hymn studies form the backbone of our Christmas music studies. I have created free hymn studies and accompanying copywork for various hymns, including Silent Night, We Three Kings, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Morning, O Holy Night, and Away in a Manger.
These studies give you the background of the hymn, share a variety of versions of the different hymns, and often include activities that can be done with the hymns.
In addition, they are often paired with chalk pastel painting lessons with Nana at You Are an Artist. You can find all of her wonderful Christmas music lessons in her Christmas Lessons and Hymn Lessons courses.
Another great option for a hymn study for Christmas is the Names of Jesus Advent devotions by Proverbial Homemaker, which includes a study of All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name. This set includes coloring pages, devotions, journaling pages, and more.
Composer Studies
If you want to focus on a particular composer, Handel is a great option for the Christmas season. You can listen to Handel’s Messiah on Prime Music or if you want a more narrated version of his music, check out My Name is Handel by Maestro Classics. This will give you the story of his life and narrated versions of several of his major compositions. One of our favorite series about musicians also has a biography about Handel, Handel at the Court of Kings.
Nutcracker Resources
If you are looking for something other than hymns, the Nutcracker is a great way to include music, ballet, and theater altogether. We are using the Maestro Nutcracker this year to introduce this to my six-year-old.
My older children have been to several local performances of this ballet and are familiar with the music and storyline. I have also found this free virtual performance that we can watch together since most of our local in-person performances have been canceled.
Another great resource for various Christmas Carols, the Nutcracker, and Handel is the SQUILT Christmas Carols and Nutcracker Resources. Whether you want to keep it really short a simple with the daily calendar or you want more in-depth resources, there are some amazing resources.
If you are just getting started and want to keep it really simple, the calendar gives you clickable links for a different piece of music to listen to each day of the month. This is a great way to get started and include a few minutes of music into your day. If you are ready for something more in-depth, the Christmas Carols package or the Nutcracker Resources will help you listen to the music and learn more about it. They also include fun activities to go along with the selections.
Music Performance
In addition to our music appreciation studies, my children are working on various Christmas songs in their music performance work as well.
The wonderful teachers at Practice Monkeys have them working on Christmas music during classes this month, and in addition, they have decided to work on a variety of songs together.
You can hear my daughter playing We Three Kings in the video above, and check out additional songs as we upload them to that YouTube Channel later this month.
Don’t Forget
Finally, I want to remind you that you don’t need to do all of these things.
Keep it manageable, and whenever possible, have something new replace something else.
For elementary and middle school, we do the math and sometimes phonics from our curriculum during December, but otherwise, most of our studies are Christmas-themed. When I tried to add all of the wonderful Christmas resources to our day, I was overwhelmed, but when they were done instead of other things, it was much more fun and manageable.
What are your favorite ways to incorporate music appreciation into your homeschool? What resources would you find helpful?
Resource Library and Affiliate Disclosure
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