As a private music teacher, every year I graciously receive Christmas gifts from students -- mostly musical Christmas decorations (ie pretty little golden music notes -- I think I have enough of those to hang an entire Beethoven sonata on the tree by now!), musical Christmasy coffee-cups (look kinda funny in July, but hey they do work all year!), soap/lotion/bath powder gift sets (still working on using up/giving away the ones I received two years ago -- the rest take up an entire shelf in the bathroom cabinet), and CHOCOLATE till it's coming out the yin-yang.

Now, don't get me wrong -- I LOVE chocolate!   But this year I received at least a dozen chocolate gifts -- big boxes of the finest Belgian truffles, homemade chocolates from the best local candymakers, tins of homeade fudge, oversized decorative cups filled with fancy flavoured hot chocolate mixes and candied spoons cemented together so tightly you can't get them apart without tearing them open and making a mess, etc etc.

By the time I bade my last student happy holidays this year, my longest kitchen counter was literally overflowing with chocolate.

It was truly a scary sight.

20 years ago I didn't see it as a problem. I'd have been more than delighted to indulge in a pure chocolate diet for weeks on end, and my body would have dealt with it just fine (*more or less*). But today? HA! I simply cannot do that to myself! And my sisters and friends are getting older and wiser too -- they really don't appreciate being tempted by the oh-so-predictable chocolate overload at Christmas anymore.   :-(

So, what to do about this predicatable plethora of student gifts???

I've tried not sending thank-you cards -- in fact I haven't sent one for years! -- but that's yet to have the desired effect.

I've been considering sending a letter home next year, asking students please NOT to give me gifts at Christmas. The "gift" I appreciate most is attentiveness, honest effort and dedicated practice anyway!

But I don't want to sound ungrateful, nor do I want to disappoint the little ones who obviously enjoy giving the teacher a Christmas present. So I guess I'll be stuck dealing with an overload of student Xmas gifts until I retire.

What an absolutely terrible problem, eh?   

;-)

Lemme know if anyone's short on chocolate out there --- or desperately needs a few golden treble-clefs-on-a-string, or some very nice eucalyptus shower gel. Or perhaps a bottle (or ten) of fragrant 'eau-de-toilette???