76: Christmas in July: Plan Your Homeschool Holiday Season Now and Save on Music and Art Resources

Christmas in July: Save on Music and Art Resources for Your Homeschool

Is December always a whirlwind in your homeschool? What if you could plan now and enjoy a peaceful, joy-filled holiday season later? In this special Christmas in July episode, Gena Mayo walks you through her top seven music and art appreciation resources designed specifically for homeschool families.

From Music of Christmas (a 3-year holiday music appreciation course) to singing favorites in Christmas Carols Made Easy, to preschool piano fun with KinderBach Christmas Songs, and even Fine Art Pages that bring the nativity and the Adoration of the Magi to life—there’s something for every age and learning style.

All these digital, self-paced, low-prep resources are 30% off during the Christmas in July sale. Tune in to hear how you can bring beauty, meaning, and musical joy to your homeschool without the December stress.

🎄 Resources mentioned:

• Music of Christmas
• Christmas Carols Made Easy
• Christmas Musicals Mini Course
• KinderBach Christmas Songs
• Nativity Through the Ages Fine Art Pages
• Christmas Fine Art Pages
• Adoration of the Magi Fine Art Pages

🛍️ Access the sale and use the code CHRISTMASINJULY at: Learn.MusicinOurHomeschool.com
(Sale ends July 31!)

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/christmas-in-july/

Please follow/subscribe to the podcast and leave a 5-star review and comment if you liked this episode! Find all courses at https://Learn.MusicinOurHomeschool.com ,free music lessons here: https://MusicinOurHomeschool.com/FreeMusicLessons , and lots more links here: https://linktr.ee/genamayo !

Transcript

76: Christmas in July: Save on Music and Art Resources for Your Homeschool

Hi friends. Gena Mayo here from Music in Our Homeschool. Welcome back to the Music in Our Homeschool podcast. Today, I have a really fun and practical episode for you. Even though we are in the middle of summer, we are talking about Christmas. Now, before you start sweating and thinking of all that December brings, let me encourage you. Planning a little now can make a huge difference later. I know December is one of the busiest months for homeschool families, so I created and curated these resources we're talking about today to make your holiday homeschool season meaningful, beautiful, and super easy. 

In this episode, I'm walking you through seven of my top Christmas music and art appreciation resources, all part of our Christmas in July sale. These are self-paced, family friendly, and designed to take the stress out of holiday planning while helping you create lasting memories. [00:01:00] You can get all of these resources or just one for 30% off until the end of July for our Christmas in July sale. The code is CHRISTMASINJULY, and you can find all the resources at the link in the show notes or description, or head over to Learn.MusicinOurHomeschool.com. Let's get started. 

Music of Christmas. This is our most comprehensive Christmas course. It's actually three years worth of holiday music appreciation content. All in one place. You can use it year after year without repeating yourself. Year one is called Christmas Music Lessons, and it includes 15 classic pieces from sacred carols, like Joy to the World, O Holy Night, and O Come O Come Emmanuel, to popular favorites like White Christmas, Sleigh Ride, and Frosty the Snowman. [00:02:00] There are also some special lessons on Handel's Messiah, the Nutcracker, and Amahl and the Night Visitors, and even music for Epiphany and Santa Lucia day. Every lesson comes with a video, reading, printable, and online quiz. 

Year two, written by my friend Kathy Gossen, is called Christmas Traditions from Around the World. In these 12 lessons you'll explore how Christmas is celebrated in places like Mexico, Sweden, Egypt, China, and Australia. Each includes a short devotional scripture, picture book suggestions, and a hands-on craft or art project. It's the perfect way to combine geography, Bible, music, and culture, all in just 15 to 30 minutes a day. 

And year three is a family-friendly version of the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, modeled after the one held at King's [00:03:00] College in Cambridge, every Christmas Eve since 1918. Each lesson includes a scripture reading, a matching carol, and a piece of famous fine art to study. It beautifully combines faith, music, and art into a short, peaceful, advent tradition. 

Whether you use the course for one advent season or stretch it out over three years, Music of Christmas is a rich Christ-centered way to bring meaning and music into your December homeschool plans.

Our second course is called Christmas Carols Made Easy. This is your go-to singing course for ages nine and up with no prior vocal training required. You'll learn to sing 11 Christmas carols from around the world with the help of printable sheet music, demonstration audio and video tracks, instrumental accompaniment tracks, coloring pages for the younger ones, and vocal warmups to get you started.[00:04:00] 

It includes classic carols from Germany, Spain, France, England, America, and even one in Italian. Some include harmony parts, so you could sing them as a group or a duet. These are great for family singing or homeschool co-ops. And as a bonus, you also get five extra songs from the Singing Made Easy courses, levels one through five, which are great for kids as young as age three.

And if you love lyric sheets, you'll find a 38-page printable pack with 14 of the most popular Christmas songs. And these are great for Christmas caroling or church performances. And you also get something really fun, a full Twelve Days of Christmas printable pack, a black and white version for coloring, and a sing-along video of me and my daughter singing it together. That one's always a hit at Christmas parties. 

This course is flexible, easy to navigate, and packed with content you can return to year [00:05:00] after year. Whether you want to create a musical moment in your homeschool mornings or prepare for singing in church, Christmas Carols Made Easy will give you all the tools you need.

The third course is called Christmas Musicals Mini Course, and this is a fun option for upper elementary through high school students, especially those who love musicals, movies, or storytelling. The Christmas Musicals Mini Course takes you through three beloved holiday musicals, A Christmas Carol, the Musical by Alan Menken and Lynn Ahrens, Elf The Musical by Matthew Skyler and Chad Beguelin, and Irving Berlin's White Christmas. Each unit includes information about the composer and lyricist, a synopsis of the musical, a list of songs, video clips of selected songs to watch, a full length performance video if available, a musical [00:06:00] concept lesson, and an online quiz. You'll find optional extension ideas like comparing the movie versions, reading the book a Christmas Carol, doing a holiday-themed art project, or even preparing a short performance.

You could do all the basics in just 15 minutes per lesson. Or stretch it out into a multi-hour deep dive with movie night, family discussions, and musical exploration. Christmas Musicals Mini Course is flexible, engaging, and gives your older kids a meaningful way to experience the arts during Christmas time, even if you don't do formal music study the rest of the year.

Next, we have KinderBach Christmas songs. This one's for your youngest learners, ages two to seven. If you've got a little one who loves the piano, KinderBach Christmas songs is a fantastic place to start. This course teaches 15 familiar Christmas songs [00:07:00] using the KinderBach method, which blends pre-staff music reading, keyboard geography, ear training, fun characters, and storytelling. The songs are simple, about one minute each and come with printable PDFs for coloring and marking, demonstration and accompaniment MP3 tracks, and a step-by-step progression that builds confidence. Your child will learn songs like Silent Night, Go Tell it on the Mountain, Joy to the World, We Three Kings, and Away in a Manger. And they'll be able to play them on the piano even without reading traditional sheet music. If you want an early childhood music curriculum that feels like play, but builds real music foundations, start with KinderBach. And KinderBach Christmas Songs is a gentle, joyful option for Christmastime.

Now let's move on to art appreciation. I have three sets of Fine Art Pages that are [00:08:00] perfect for the Christmas season. The first one is called Nativity Through the Ages. Art appreciation doesn't have to be formal or complicated. This printable set makes it incredibly simple. You receive 20 famous nativity paintings spanning from the 1300s to the early 1900s, created by artists like Giotto, Botticelli, Caravaggio, and Gauguin. Just print these out, hang them up around your home or classroom, and let your kids naturally engage with the beauty of sacred art. Each piece shows how different artists and cultures visualize the birth of Christ. You could do casual picture, study, spark storytelling or discussion, or simply display them in rotation during Advent. It's one of the easiest ways to incorporate beauty and meaning into your holiday routine with no prep required.

The next set of Fine Art Pages is simply [00:09:00] called Christmas. It's a smaller set that includes seven festive artworks, five related to the nativity and two cozy family Christmas scenes. You'll see works by Peter Paul Rubens, Lorenzo Lotto, Carl Larson, and more. It's perfect for displaying throughout December, adding a quiet sense of wonder and reflection to your home environment. Like many of the Fine Art Pages, this set comes in both standard format and full page versions.

And the last holiday resource is called Adoration of the Magi Fine Art Pages. This set specifically focuses on the story of the three wise men visiting Jesus. You'll explore 15 masterpieces by artists such as Raphael, Albrecht Dürer, Lavinia Fontana, and James Tissot, each showing a different cultural and historical take on the [00:10:00] same biblical event. This great addition to your late December or early January homeschool plans, if you study Epiphany, will give you a more complete picture of the Christmas story.

Well, that's our full lineup for the Christmas and July sale. All of these products are digital, instantly accessible, and come with lifetime access. So you can use them now, in December, and year after year.

And because they're specifically created for homeschoolers like you, they're designed to be flexible, low prep, and very meaningful, bringing joy, beauty, and truth into your Christmas season.

You can find these resources right now at Learn.MusicinOurHomeschool.com, or check out the link in the show notes or description that gives you a blog post that includes links and more information about each of these special [00:11:00] resources.

Remember, the Christmas in July sale only lasts till the end of July. So head over to pick out your resource today and be sure to use the code CHRISTMASINJULY to save 30%.

Thanks for spending time with me today. If this episode was helpful, would you take a moment to leave a review and share it with a homeschool friend?

And if you've used any of these Christmas resources, I would love to hear about your experience.

And until next time, I'm Gena Mayo wishing you a peaceful July and a more joyful music-filled Christmas up ahead.

Find links to all resources mentioned in this episode here: https://musicinourhomeschool.com/christmas-in-july/