Writing a Christmas Story

 

This week I prepared and delivered a seven-minute speech at Rising Tide Toastmasters club. The speech was a simple Christmas story.

Speeches like this aren’t a strength of mine.  I use stories regularly in speeches, but rarely would the purpose of one of my speeches be only to entertain. However, over the past week this one fell into place quickly and easily.  I will share the process as I think you might find it helpful.  I will likely re-use the speech in Christmases to come.

Three Components

 I had recently completed a thorough cleaning of my living room, and in doing so, I picked up and moved an old guitar that was just sitting around collecting dust. I decluttered books, DVDs, and the guitar, and took them to the Salvation Army thrift shop as a donation.  That’s the entire story, but of course each component needs some relevant detail and color. Here’s how that was added. Three components for about two minutes each result in around six minutes of material in my experience and practice. I delivered this planned six minutes of material in a total of seven minutes. Here are the components.

First, I described the thorough cleaning.  I still have too many books.  I was surprised how many DVDs I still have when I have no longer have a DVD player, or a television. I own a few guitars and the one I spoke about was unused for many years. My Rising Tide Toastmasters club had recently discussed clutter so this provided a nice refer back to that shared experience.  At every meeting we practice off-the-cuff questions and response on a variety of topics, and a few weeks ago it was on clutter. I noticed people have some strong opinions on acquisition, storage, and disposal. So, the first speech component about my decluttering was easy to construct and set the stage for the speech.

For the second component, I described how I had originally acquired the guitar, and why it was not used recently. The guitar is a Les Paul junior and when I bought it, it was in poor shape, but I wanted it anyway, because it looked cool.  I made efforts to improve it, but it was never in great condition. I did and do love it, but in recent years I bought another junior that is in much better shape.

For the third component, I described the disposal, and the decision on how to proceed with disposal.  I had considered selling or gifting the guitar directly to see if I could get it to a kid at Christmas who would treasure having a cool looking guitar, that is playable, but not in greet shape. But listing and finding a buyer, let alone a buyer I would find suitable for my beloved possession, would take time. So, I decided to donate it and let the thrift shop manage all aspects of that.  I do hope it makes some kids Christmas.

Dialogue Adds Color

The interaction at the thrift shop added more color. The conversation was brief;

“I have a donation’”

“Great. Thanks.  A guitar! How much should we charge for this?”

“Not much! Ten dollars. Maybe as much as $50.”

“Is that all!!!”

“Yes.  It’s playable, but it’s not in great shape. Hopefully it makes some kids Christmas. It would make a great first guitar for someone.”

 

And those were the three components.

 

Speeches and Purpose

It’s fine for a speech to only offer a story, to simply entertain. Christmas time leads itself to that.  But it’s much better if you can inspire people to think differently or act differently.

So, I closed by stating my purpose was to get the audience thinking about how we all have possessions, how the value to us often diminishes over time, and that they might be holding something that might make nice donation, and make someone’s Christmas. Not a world changing message, but perhaps it can help someone’s holiday.

I feel good believing that the guitar will get into the hands of a deserving kid, maybe a future rock star.

My purpose in writing this is to show how we can be opportunistic in reflecting on everyday small events, and assemble components for a worthwhile speech.