5 Tips To Give The Best Holiday Toast

With the holiday season comes great responsibility… that is if it’s your duty to give the annual toast!?

Don’t worry, giving a good toast is akin to telling a good story? — and that we can help you with!

If you find yourself intimidated, let’s simplify a good story structure so you can create the heartfelt sentiments and impact that you want to share. Here are some quick tips to nail your toast and keep your audience engaged.

1. Pick your moment

The perfect time to give your toast is when people’s bellies and glasses are full. It’s best not to grab everyone’s attention when they are mid-bite. When you feel like the timing is just right, stand up from your seat and ask for everyone’s attention.

2. Start at the end

Before you begin, take a moment and decide what your point is. What do you want to be the lasting idea that your friends and family take away from what you have to say? Hope, resilience, gratitude — What is the point of your story? Mentally construct it and decide this will be where you end, so you have a destination point for your communication.

3. Set the Stage

To pull us in and make us care, you need to set the stage and pull us into the emotion of what you have to say. Start by telling the backstory of your idea so that you can guide us with you through it. Outline how it felt and looked, and who was involved at the beginning. Stay in the first person tense, and give us details. Don’t start at your point, the goal here is to lead us along with you to it.

4. Add some tension!

By adding a moment of suspense, like a twist or “and then…” moment, you create emotional tension for your audience to hang in. By creating this moment for your audience before you deliver your point, your lasting idea is elevated into feeling like closure to them. Your final words feel like a resolution to the story you’ve just taken on.

5. Connect with your Audience

Don’t forget to make eye contact with your friends and family as you speak. It’s important to help you connect with your audience and shows that you are focused on them and the moment you’re sharing together. (This is especially important if you are speaking about someone that is present at the event.)?

Give these tips a try! Hopefully, they’ll help you demystify the pressure of a good toast and feel ready for your next holiday dinner. Let me know in the comments which tip was the most helpful.?

Have some fun becoming the compelling storyteller that everyone wants to talk to!