Well, you knew this moment was coming; everyone's glasses are full and they're staring at you.
That's cause it's time for the holiday toast.
I'm Megan Finnerty and I'm the director and founder of The Storytellers Project here at
the USA TODAY NETWORK and I'm here to teach you how to give the perfect
holiday toast using tips and tricks from storytellers!
We're going to get started off right now and what you're going to need is a piece of paper
and a pen, or you can use the template we have right over here... below... somewhere
around here we sent you a template.
OK, let's get started.
Number one - You want to think about the audience.
You can't give a great toast if you don't know who's in the room.
First I want you to think: "Who are these people?"
Are they your family?
Are they your friends?
Are they your awkward coworkers?
Either way, write down everything you can about them.
How old are they?
Are they your coworkers?
Do they know what you do?
Do they agree with you politically or socially?
Have you seen them in years or is all of this very weird...
OK, figure that out and write it down.
If you can see'em, you can toast'em.
Number two - You want to think about saying something that gets everyone to agree with
you because that brings people together emotionally and closer.
So what you do is you just say: "Isn't this amazing that we're all here together?"
Or, "What a blessing that everyone traveled so safely to be here!"
Or, "How 'bout them Cubbies?!"
Just kidding.
I don't know if everyone says that but we say that at my holiday table.
So you say something generic that everyone can agree with and that just makes people
come closer to you with their hearts, and that's how you want to start the toast.
Then, you pivot and you toast - ready?
This is number three - Figure out are you toasting a person or a group, and then think
about a time that person or group said something or did something that taught you a lesson
or showed you something important.
It doesn't have to be a big deal!
It's just a time a person demonstrated really positive behavior or explicitly showed you
or taught you something that really matters to you today.
Take a minute, think about this, and jot it down.
OK, number four - Now is where you actually start putting together the toast.
I promise it can go quickly.
You just want to jot down a couple bullet points about the way this person or group
showed you that important lesson that matters to you still today.
So you can start with like, how old you were, time, date, place, and then maybe what the
problem was, what that person did to solve the problem, and then you just finish by saying
how important it still is to you today.
It's a pretty basic structure.
If you don't have a problem you can just reflect on the thing they taught you generically.
Maybe they just always did the right thing, and you want to toast to that now.
Just write that down.
So don't overthink this.
Alright number five - What you need to do to bring it all home is assume that basically
everyone else in the room has probably learned something awesome from this person too.
So you just raise your glass and you say: "To every time all of us have benefited or
learned or enjoyed [blah blah blah] from this person or group, we raise our glasses!"
It works every time.
So you just wrap by lifting your glass, inviting everyone to agree with you again, and then
take a drink.
Alright, I know what you're thinking: "Megan.
I've been drinking.
It's hot.
The holidays are coming.
Can't you just show me what a good toast looks like?"
Yes I can!
I'm going to try to toast my parents, because I think they're watching.
OK, are you ready?
So I'm going to have the holidays with my siblings, so they're who is in the audience
and I'm will jot down things like how old they are, and what they look like, and [blah
blah blah] but the good news is, I know these people.
So what I'm going to say is:
"Isn't it such a blessing that all of us were able to travel so far and so safely and be
here together.
It really matters.
You came from Seattle, I came from Phoenix.
You came from Cleveland, and Zion, and Mobile, Alabama and here we all are.
What a joy.
Now I really want to raise my glass and toast our parents, because they taught us the meaning
and the importance of being together.
Whether it was showing up to our Boy Scout meetings, Girl Scout meetings, baseball and
softball games, or oh God knows those terrible plays I was in all through high school, our
Mom and Dad were there every time; cheering us on and waving to us, and my Mom said "Whoop!,"
all the time.
Well listen, that's why we're all here today.
It's because it's still important to the rest of us to show up for everything.
So I really want to raise a glass and thank our parents for always demonstrating that
it really matters to be there in person; at the holidays, and throughout the rest of the
year.
Cheers."
It's as easy as that!
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and I hope that all of your toasts at least are fun for
you.
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