When does Christmas end? And Ways to keep Celebrating ❤️

When does Christmas end? And Ways to keep Celebrating ❤️

While the rest of the world has pretty much moved on from Christmas celebrations, our family is still keeping the festive spirit in our home! As Catholics, we love that we get to celebrate the whole season of Christmas. 

Our family tends to wrap up our biggest Christmas celebrations on January 6th - The feast of the Epiphany!

And the US Conference of Catholic Bishops says that the liturgical season of Christmas ends with the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord - that’s on January 12th this year.

Some Catholics celebrate all the way until February 2nd - The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (also known as Candlemas). 

So how are we keeping the season of Christmas in our home during this time?

Here are some simple ideas to keep the Liturgical season of Christmas alive in our homes and hearts:

  1. Keep the decorations up! 
  2. Light a Christmas-scented candle for night time prayers or for dinner (My sister gifted me a Frankincense and Myrrh candle…we LOVE it)
  3. Keep Playing Christmas music - Either listen to Christmas playlists on YouTube or play your own on your Playful Pitch Bars (see the Christmas song card set for sacred and secular classics!)
  4. Bake Christmas cookies or your favorite dessert to share after dinner
  5. Pray and reflect on the Joyful Mysteries! (Free download HERE in our Freebies - our Musical Rosary Guide with the Joyful Mysteries and the song Ave Maria.)
  6. Watch and read stories of the Nativity together. (Side note: Charlie Brown’s Christmas sweetly reinforces the idea of Jesus being at the center of Christmas)
  7. Buy or make a cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus. 

Now is the perfect time to do the “stuff you couldn’t squeeze in” on or before Christmas day!!

Enjoy this beautiful season with your family!! 

Merry Christmas!!

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FAQs

The Faith

How does this instrument help teach the Faith?

We use traditional Catholic Hymns and Bible Songs to introduce music playing. By including songs of the Faith in your Domestic Church and traditions, it helps children learn and feel and grow with the beautiful lyrics and melodies of the Faith.

Many of our customers have also incorporated this instrument into their family’s prayer time, which includes playing and singing hymns after their family rosary in the evenings.

Music is such an integral part of Catholic worship and experience, and Playful Pitch makes it accessible to the Church’s youngest members.

What are other ways we can use this instrument as a family?

Some customers have used it as a guide on incorporating music of the Liturgical seasons and specials feasts throughout the year. They sing and listen to the Playful Pitch songs together as a family, and then their children play the songs on the pitch bars independently throughout the week.

We have customers who have used Playful Pitch to allow the youngest members join the older children to play music together. The older child will play the song on the piano or violin (and a variety of other instruments), while the younger child plays the tune on the Playful Pitch Bars.

The Music

Do I have to know how to read music to help my child use Playful Pitch?

Nope - our notation is color coded and intuitive. We use familiar and popular tunes so learners can know how the song should sound - and use our friendly, simplified notation to play it out!

How is Playful Pitch notation different than reading other music?

Our notation and instruments are color-coded to make music-reading intuitive and fun. We also slightly change rhythm notation - so that long notes appear long, and short notes appear small.

We blend traditional black-and-white music notes with a fun, easy-to-read system for a gentle introduction to music reading.

Will there be new songs available in the future?

Yes, The Online Classroom will have a new melody to play with the change of every Church Season, or every month. Additionally, we are constantly designing new printed song cards that we’ll put in our shop when they’re ready!

The Instrument

FAQs about our Pitch Bar Set

What’s the difference between Playful Pitch Bars and toy xylophones?

Toy instruments are typically made with low sound quality, cheaper materials, or with battery-operated, electronic sounds.

Playful Pitch Bars are made from professionally-tuned, high-end aluminum bars and beech wood – for a child to learn music-reading and pitch-training from a real, professional, durable instrument.

Do the digital bars work just as well as the physical instrument?

Unfortunately - No. There’s just no substitute to a real, natural, professionally-tuned instrument. The timing, feeling, and sound of digital instruments will never be as good as the physical thing.

We love the digital bars for introducing kids to the concept of our music notation! But it works much much better for the real instrument.

Does it take a lot of guidance/time to teach a child how to use this instrument?

We designed Playful Pitch to be as child-led and intuitive as possible. We believe in the Montessori principle of fostering an independent work environment with rich materials, so that the child’s natural curiosity and delight take over the learning process.

An adult may demonstrate the initial set up and care, but after a short time, the child’s natural love of music and intuition should be able to take over!

As parents, we personally love to send our 4 and 6 year old children downstairs to play the pitch bars independently while the toddler and baby are taking a nap. The sound is soft enough to keep the babies asleep. We love to hear the pleasant, subtle background sounds of the pitch bars in the home, similar to soft wind chimes.

What age is this instrument/method for?

It was designed as an introduction to music making and reading for ages 3-10. Though, most of our customer feedback tells us that THE WHOLE FAMILY loves this instrument. Adults and teens have just as much fun as children, playing beloved familiar tunes on the color coded instrument.

Our most common review is “EVERYONE is wanting their turn on it....from the youngest child to the parents”. Many parents messaged to tell us they secretly played with it before wrapping it up and giving it to their children.

We LOVE that!!

Why not just start kids off on piano or violin?

We believe that fostering a love for music making should start with a play-based approach that capitalizes on the child’s natural love and intuition for music.

Formal lessons often come with a stigma of overwhelming assignments and mandated practicing - things that can squash a child’s joy for music making. If they first experience success on our gentle process and simplified with relative ease, it builds a confident, joyful musician who becomes inspired to work through the later challenges of music making.

Also - some kids and parents are just not ready for the time and financial commitments of formal lessons and professional instruments. Playful Pitch provides a way to introduce children to music, without spending the thousands it costs to buy a professional instrument and provide ongoing lessons.

I want to order the bars now, where can I get them?

If this is your first interaction with Playful Pitch you can simply enter your email below (or on this page) where we give you a welcome discount to any of our physical items in our online shop. Even if you dont intend to use the free Playful Pitch Online Classroom, you will still receive the discount promo codes.

You’ll receive your welcome discount codes immediately via email (check all your mail folders if you don’t see it) and there will be links to our shop where you can place an order.

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