Music Lessons for Holidays & Special Days

Do a fun and easy music lesson with your elementary students to prepare for different holidays and special days throughout the year!

You will love the Music Lessons for Holidays & Special Days online course! Music is such a part of our lives and can really help us prepare for the holidays we want to celebrate throughout the year. Learn about, listen to, and do activities with various songs and music which relate to holidays such as New Year's Day, St. Patrick's Day, the Fourth of July, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas! Also included are fun music lessons for special days such as Star Wars Day/May the Fourth, Talk Like a Pirate Day, and Dr. Seuss Day!

Each of the 48 lessons includes:

  • Information about the holiday or special day
  • Videos of the music to listen to/ watch
  • At least one printable
  • An online quiz

Note: Music for Holidays & Special Days is aimed mostly toward Americans since many of the holidays and special days included are uniquely American.


By the way, are you looking for a music membership experience?

The Music in Our Homeschool Plus (MIOH+) elementary membership experience will open for enrollment in January 2022.

Click here to learn more & sign up for the MIOH+ waitlist.

The Fine Arts in Our Homeschool Plus (FIOH+) high school membership experience will be open for enrollment in January 2022.

Click here to learn more about Fine Arts in Our Homeschool Plus & sign up for the FIOH+ waitlist!

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See why this is perfect for you and your students.


So how does it work? Simple! Gena has done all the work for us. You read the lesson and push the play button for the music and video, and that is pretty much it. The time it takes to listen to each lesson varies greatly. Some take just a few minutes to complete, but a few run an hour or more depending on the length of the compositions.

I personally went through the entire year of lessons and tried out two of them with the kids. The first was the SPRING lesson where six of my grandchildren joined in with the six children who are still at home. I'm telling you, if a lesson can hold the attention of TWELVE kids, ages two through fifteen, it is GOOD. We also did the Dr. Seuss lesson with just my four younger kids and they enjoyed it a lot.

I'm looking forward to using this on the relevant days during our Morning Time throughout the next year. What a low stress and easy way to add musical enrichment, learning about the instruments and musical concepts, AND holidays and special days all wrapped into one easy lesson. Thank you, Gena!

~ R.L., homeschool mom and grandmother

Music for Holidays and Special Days is a delight! I love the variety of music that is presented in this course! From sacred to silly, it was fun to introduce my kids to old favorites as well as new songs and arrangements I had never heard. Just enough background info to make it interesting without being overwhelming. I highly recommend this course if you're looking to add a little fun to your school year!

~ S. B., piano teacher and homeschool mom of 6

Your Instructor


Gena Mayo
Gena Mayo

Gena Mayo is a homeschooling mom of 8 who has been teaching music in various forms for over 25 years. She has a Bachelors degree in Music Education and a Masters degree in Vocal Pedagogy (teaching voice lessons). It has been her joy to teach elementary and junior high choir, high school voice classes, private voice lessons for teens through adults, early childhood music and movement classes (babies through preschool), elementary general music, and music appreciation for elementary through high school. But, her favorite music teaching experience has been as musical director for stage musicals such as Seussical, Shrek, Singing in the Rain, Newsies, and Beauty and the Beast. It is Gena's desire to help all homeschoolers include music in their homeschools!


Course Curriculum


  First Section
Available in days
days after you enroll
  Music Lessons
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  Additional Resources
Available in days
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I am new to homeschooling, so it was awesome to find a resource that has so much already pulled together for me. We do a lot of school work featuring holidays and I had honestly never thought of pulling music into a lot of them. . . .

Multiple songs/videos for each holiday lent itself to different styles of music, instruments, and time periods. All of which easily segued into other area of learning. We love notebooking, so the pages for copywork, writing thoughts and ideas, or drawing how the music makes you feel were so welcome. Pages like for Spring with the compare and contrast were great.

~ K.I., homeschool mom

Wow! There is a ton of information in this course! My son, Seth, asked me to not mark each section as complete as "he wants to do it when it's all his turn".
Seth (age 7) prefers the bagpipes and said that it makes him feel sad for people he doesn't get to see much and hopeful that he will see them again. He has also decided he wishes to learn the bagpipes because he "feels a pulling inside" whenever he listens to them. Dr. Seuss Day had Seth putting on his "Seuss" hat and we spent the day watching all of the videos we could find, rereading the beloved books, and with Seth sharing his newly found knowledge with the medical staff at the hospital. The April Fool's parodies had us both giggling. I loved seeing a memory from my childhood with the Schoolhouse Rocks video for Constitution Day. Columbus Day and the Theme from Jaws helped show Seth that the feel of music can change depending on how it is presented. We are continuing to explore the music of John Williams. I was surprised to learn that "Over the River and Through the Woods is a Thanksgiving song. I've always associated it as a Christmas song.
Overall, my conclusion is that this is a great course for all ages. A parent can choose how much information from each holiday to teach their child depending on their level and add more to it each year, especially with the resources provided. It is also a wonderful and fun way to explore the variations on popular songs whether it is instrumental, vocal, or both. ~ K. H., homeschool mom

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As a homeschooling mother of five, that isn’t very musically inclined, I love that Gena Mayo has taken special days throughout the year and connected it to music. I can cover social studies, with reading and writing, all while making it fun and meaningful by diving into the world of music. It’s an awesome feeling to hear my kids say they really enjoyed what we just listened to or when they hear something and they excitedly tell me what it means. ~K. J., homeschool mom of 5

My entire family enjoys Gena’s music lessons! My 1 1/2 year old and their grandfather all joined in as we celebrated Dr. Seuss’ birthday with great music and fun videos. We have done several of her 15 minute lessons and I love how easy to teach and engaging they are.
They fit well with other unit study resources or as a stand alone activity. Most of all they help foster music appreciation and spark interesting conversations within our homeschool while keeping learning fun!
~R. J., homeschool mom of 6

Frequently Asked Questions


When does the course start and finish?
The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.
How long do I have access to the course?
How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.
What if I am unhappy with the course?
We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.