St. Paul, Minnesota, on December 12, 2010: Sunshine and more than 17” of fresh snow – ready for shoveling.

To be honest, my mind isn’t fully on the SmartMusic blog today. My thoughts keep drifting to the need to shovel some more snow, not to mention many other as-of-yet uncompleted holiday preparations. You too? While SmartMusic can’t shovel the sidewalk (at least not yet), it can help with some other seasonal preparations.

Could you use a holiday-themed activity for your students, family members, or yourself? SmartMusic includes many holiday titles that can be fun to play this time of year. To find them within SmartMusic, click on “Find Music,” and, under “Quick Search” enter the text “holiday.” You can further refine your results by specifying an instrument, or leave things open and click “Search.”

If you’re also a Finale user, we’ve made some holiday-themed Finale files (including easy pieces for pre-reading students) available as a holiday gift. Downloads for both Macintosh and Windows users are provided.

With that, both the SmartMusic blog and I are officially on holiday; the SmartMusic blog will return on Wednesday, January 5, 2011. I wish you all happy holidays, safe travels, and an excellent New Year!