Children in piano lessons need opportunities to perform, but all of these opportunities don't need to involve a formal recital in a rented hall on a 9 foot Steinway. Piano recital parties can be rather spontaneous events that allow children to enjoy sharing their music with other kids and their family and friends in a relaxed way. Here's a great piano party idea that kids and their families always enjoy. If you're a parent, share this idea with your child's piano teacher and offer to be a helper at this fun event.

Winter Holiday Open House - The Winter Holiday Open House is a fun, outdoor piano event. In my piano studio the music is amplified outdoors where family and friends gather for Cookies and Cider while they listen to as many student performances as they have time for. This recital is an open house. That means, for example, it is open to students and their families between certain hours. I generally hold my piano studio's Winter Holiday Open House on a Sunday between 12:30 and 2:30. At that time the other offices around my studio are closed and there is plenty of parking available.

Since I have a nice lawn next to our building, I set up canopy tents with tables for refreshments and rent plenty of chairs so folks can stay as long as they wish and be comfortable. The students come into the studio to play Christmas Music as well as other pieces they have selected to play for this event.

To make this event even more fun for kids I set up a craft table with volunteers to help students and their friends make a Christmas Ornament. This makes a nice memory for kids to take home with and hang on their Christmas tree as a reminder of their Winter

Holiday Recital Party. Each year they make a new ornament. I also hold a drawing for a couple of cute and cuddly stuffed animals. Parents fill out a survey to let me know how their children's lessons are going from their perspective and by doing so they enter their student in the drawing. Year after year parents have told me how much they enjoy this "friendly social.”

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