My Christmas Customs speech described elsewhere covers the origins of the Christmas cracker, Christmas tree, Santa and Rudolph and the Christmas carol 12 days of Christmas.
To get it evaluated at Toastmasters, I looked for a speech I had not done from the CC manual. I decided to do the Entertaining speech.
However, the first entertaining speech was based on three anecdotes from your own life.
My speech was really an informative speech about the original of Christmas trees, crackers etc.
Here's my revised version based on anecdotes:
Christmas and New Year Disasters and Delights
1Do you believe in Father Christmas?
When I was a child I believed everything I was told and read about.
I believed in Father Christmas, and baby Jesus, who I assumed was the son of Father Christmas. As you can probably guess, when I found out that Father Christmas was a fake, I became suspicious about lots of other stories, too.
When I became a teacher, I was determined never to tell children nonsense which far from destroying their faith, was likely to undermine it. I did not set out to contradict anybody's parents, but I was faced with a challenge when a little girl from Korea asked me, "Do you believe in Santa Claus?" I opened my mouth to reply, when I discovered that the question was purely academic, because she already knew the answer. She said, "My father told me, "You have to believe in Santa Claus because if you don't, you won't get a Christmas present."
This was a double threat. First, if I told her the truth, I was responsible for her not getting a Christmas present. Secondly, as a teacher of an oriental pupil who came from a part of the world where teachers were help in high esteem, I might have hoped to get a Christmas card and possibly a small present. I clearly would not get a present if I revealed that I did not believe in Father Christmas, and was to blame for destroying his daughter's belief.
For many years I remembered this with horror, believing that unfortunate child came from weird home, where the little girl's father a control freak, and he must be from some kind of cult, which threatened children.
However, I recently read on a forum about Father Christmas, that one of the commentators or readers, had also been told the same story about if you don't believe in Father Christmas you don't get any presents.
I don't know whether I read a third, confirming that this was not unique to one maniac, but a general joke going around amongst parents, especially those trying to quieten children who were on the verge of turning into realists, and spoiling Christmas by revealing the truth to their still wide-eyed and open -mouthed baby brothers and sisters.
Clearly if total nonsense or threats are made up by one person, they are dangerous nonsense. However, if stories and threats to unbelievers are made up and then became repeated many times by two or more people, the untruths are merely amusing folklore.
1 Christmas trip to Lapland
I went to Finland on a press travel trip. I asked Father Christmas: "What do you say to people who say they don't believe in Santa Claus?'
He replied, "Did you come here by plane?"
"I don't believe in Concorde."
Now Concorde is no more. Nowadays an equally good, similar but updated answer from Santa would be:
"I use a sleigh. I don't believe in plane travel."
Once you have recovered from Christmas, you have New Year. If you go away on holiday, you can enjoy the entertainment provided by the hotel. Most big cities and seaside have fireworks displays on New Year's Even. A good place to watch if from a hilltop or clifftop hotel. One of the best displays we saw was over Gibraltar, when we stayed at the Rock Hotel, which is at the top of the Rock.
Our experience in Florida was rather embarrassing. We bought fireworks for our son, then aged about ten years old. Our first thought was to light them on the balcony. But what if they fell onto balconies below, or people on the forecourt below, who were enjoying a wedding in the ground floor suite and marquee.
We wanted to room on the non-smoking floor, but the hotel was full, the wedding party had booked the entire no smoking floor, and the next floor.
Somebody decided to set off the fireworks in the bathroom. Near Water.
The wedding downstairs was getting riotous. We are very wary of weddings on hotels. We have been in two hotels, one in Scotland and one in the USA, where wedding guests have set off the fire alarm as a joke, to try to get the bride and groom out of their suite.
We had just started our fireworks display and were onto the second firework when the fire alarm went off. We waited a short while, uncertain whether to leave. It kept ringing. We cautiously opened the bedroom door. No sign of fire. However, the alarm continued, so we decided it was safer to leave. Half way down the corridor, it stopped. So we went back to the bedroom.
We started the fireworks again, and shortly afterwards the fire alarm went off again. We decided somebody was having fun and games.
We looked out a a member of staff was knocking on all the doors in our corridor. We didn't start the fireworks again in case we were interrupted.
Then we got a knock on the door. Security came in. They said do you have a fire. We said no. They said good. You're the last bedroom. We've been right along. The alarm sounds and it showed their corridor, so somebody on your floor set off the alarm.
After he left, I said, where's the fire alarm. We looked all around. We had fire alarms in the bedrooms, even in the bathroom.
Our son said, 'Can we have the fireworks now?" I said no. I think we were the people who set off the fire alarm.
My family said, No. It wasn't us, It was the wedding party.
I said you know what it costs the hotel or the insurance to compensate everybody for ...
We took out fireworks down to the beach.
Prague
Fireworks in car park! To our left. Rockets to the right. By the front. By the back near petrol tank.
USA
Best New Year's eve. Lake Tahoe. Motel
Nowhere to go. Had an early night. Best start to a new year.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.
To get it evaluated at Toastmasters, I looked for a speech I had not done from the CC manual. I decided to do the Entertaining speech.
However, the first entertaining speech was based on three anecdotes from your own life.
My speech was really an informative speech about the original of Christmas trees, crackers etc.
Here's my revised version based on anecdotes:
Christmas and New Year Disasters and Delights
1Do you believe in Father Christmas?
When I was a child I believed everything I was told and read about.
I believed in Father Christmas, and baby Jesus, who I assumed was the son of Father Christmas. As you can probably guess, when I found out that Father Christmas was a fake, I became suspicious about lots of other stories, too.
When I became a teacher, I was determined never to tell children nonsense which far from destroying their faith, was likely to undermine it. I did not set out to contradict anybody's parents, but I was faced with a challenge when a little girl from Korea asked me, "Do you believe in Santa Claus?" I opened my mouth to reply, when I discovered that the question was purely academic, because she already knew the answer. She said, "My father told me, "You have to believe in Santa Claus because if you don't, you won't get a Christmas present."
This was a double threat. First, if I told her the truth, I was responsible for her not getting a Christmas present. Secondly, as a teacher of an oriental pupil who came from a part of the world where teachers were help in high esteem, I might have hoped to get a Christmas card and possibly a small present. I clearly would not get a present if I revealed that I did not believe in Father Christmas, and was to blame for destroying his daughter's belief.
For many years I remembered this with horror, believing that unfortunate child came from weird home, where the little girl's father a control freak, and he must be from some kind of cult, which threatened children.
However, I recently read on a forum about Father Christmas, that one of the commentators or readers, had also been told the same story about if you don't believe in Father Christmas you don't get any presents.
I don't know whether I read a third, confirming that this was not unique to one maniac, but a general joke going around amongst parents, especially those trying to quieten children who were on the verge of turning into realists, and spoiling Christmas by revealing the truth to their still wide-eyed and open -mouthed baby brothers and sisters.
Clearly if total nonsense or threats are made up by one person, they are dangerous nonsense. However, if stories and threats to unbelievers are made up and then became repeated many times by two or more people, the untruths are merely amusing folklore.
1 Christmas trip to Lapland
I went to Finland on a press travel trip. I asked Father Christmas: "What do you say to people who say they don't believe in Santa Claus?'
He replied, "Did you come here by plane?"
"I don't believe in Concorde."
Now Concorde is no more. Nowadays an equally good, similar but updated answer from Santa would be:
"I use a sleigh. I don't believe in plane travel."
Once you have recovered from Christmas, you have New Year. If you go away on holiday, you can enjoy the entertainment provided by the hotel. Most big cities and seaside have fireworks displays on New Year's Even. A good place to watch if from a hilltop or clifftop hotel. One of the best displays we saw was over Gibraltar, when we stayed at the Rock Hotel, which is at the top of the Rock.
Our experience in Florida was rather embarrassing. We bought fireworks for our son, then aged about ten years old. Our first thought was to light them on the balcony. But what if they fell onto balconies below, or people on the forecourt below, who were enjoying a wedding in the ground floor suite and marquee.
We wanted to room on the non-smoking floor, but the hotel was full, the wedding party had booked the entire no smoking floor, and the next floor.
Somebody decided to set off the fireworks in the bathroom. Near Water.
The wedding downstairs was getting riotous. We are very wary of weddings on hotels. We have been in two hotels, one in Scotland and one in the USA, where wedding guests have set off the fire alarm as a joke, to try to get the bride and groom out of their suite.
We had just started our fireworks display and were onto the second firework when the fire alarm went off. We waited a short while, uncertain whether to leave. It kept ringing. We cautiously opened the bedroom door. No sign of fire. However, the alarm continued, so we decided it was safer to leave. Half way down the corridor, it stopped. So we went back to the bedroom.
We started the fireworks again, and shortly afterwards the fire alarm went off again. We decided somebody was having fun and games.
We looked out a a member of staff was knocking on all the doors in our corridor. We didn't start the fireworks again in case we were interrupted.
Then we got a knock on the door. Security came in. They said do you have a fire. We said no. They said good. You're the last bedroom. We've been right along. The alarm sounds and it showed their corridor, so somebody on your floor set off the alarm.
After he left, I said, where's the fire alarm. We looked all around. We had fire alarms in the bedrooms, even in the bathroom.
Our son said, 'Can we have the fireworks now?" I said no. I think we were the people who set off the fire alarm.
My family said, No. It wasn't us, It was the wedding party.
I said you know what it costs the hotel or the insurance to compensate everybody for ...
We took out fireworks down to the beach.
Prague
Fireworks in car park! To our left. Rockets to the right. By the front. By the back near petrol tank.
USA
Best New Year's eve. Lake Tahoe. Motel
Nowhere to go. Had an early night. Best start to a new year.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer, author, speaker.
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