#114: 7 Ways to Prepare Holiday Music Now (Without Having to Practice Jingle Bells Again)

Christmas in July has become “a thing.”

The official story is that Christmas in July was first celebrated at a summer camp in Brevard, North Carolina in 1933. Being a classic film fan, I knew that Christmas in July was already popular by 1940, due to the film with that title. But now July is nearly as popular for Christmas as December and I’m beginning to think that we will soon see stores moving their Christmas sales from August into July. 

Of course, for us harpists, summer is a great time to pull out that Christmas repertoire. In the slower days of summer, we can dedicate some practice time to refreshing and renewing our holiday hits list.

But you don’t have to immerse yourself in “Winter Wonderland” and “Jingle Bells’" or even “Silent Night” to put a little Christmas into your summer. If you’re the type who loves holiday music, then by all means dive in with extra mistletoe and holly. But if you’re not ready to surrender your summer harp playing to ”Away in a Manger” for even a week or two, there are still some things you can do now to ease your holiday workload when Christmas in December rolls around. Depending on your personal preference, you can geek out on the musical gingerbread or play the Christmas in July grinch in style.

So get ready to discover some fun ways to put some holiday sparkle in your summer without having to only practice all your holiday music. After all, “Summertime” is a nice piece to play too!

Links to things I think you might be interested in that were mentioned in the podcast episode: 

• Don’t miss Finish Camp on August 2nd. Register now!
• Related resource How Holiday Music Can Make You a Better Harpist blog post
• Harpmastery.com

Get involved in the show! Send your questions and suggestions for future podcast episodes to me at [email protected]