This was my first 2024 speech for Toastmasters, I had begun working on it in November with a Christmas theme, but there were no speaker slots in December so reworked it as the first speech of 2024. This is for my Level Three “Engaging your Audience with Humor” speech.
I am a member of Toastmasters 4 Writer.
Have you ever considered the Internal Logic in the Christmas song “Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer”? I have, and it scared me.
What my speech and you’ll be asking … ?
A short post holiday blog.
There was an annoying commercial that ran for about two weeks before Christmas, and then it vanished when the company ended up making a terrible mistake.
Here’s are my thoughts on it.
First off, one of the earliest legends of Saint Nicholas comes from three young women needing dowry moneys before they could be wed. In one version of the tale hearing of their need Nicholas left a bag of gold just inside the door of two of the girls, and the third girl the door was locked and so he climbed to the roof and dropped the bag down through the chimney.
Another version of the story has him tossing the money in through a window and it lands mysteriously in a stocking hanging to dry over the mantel.
Whether the story is true or exactly how it happened, Nicholas did it out of caring for people who had nothing. He heard of a need and provided for it.
So Santa Clause visits and comes down the chimney with gifts… (side thought: Nicholas didn’t have a naught or nice list… just a list of those in need.)
Anyway, the point at hand…
BestBuys produced a series of commercials this holiday season. At least two that I saw, but only one matters.
After ordering online, a mother has come into the store to pick up her purchases, and is amazed by this…
“Looks like Santa’s got some competition this year?” The sales clerk says, and the mother agrees.
Cut to Christmas Eve and the mother is standing on the roof (or in the other commercial standing by the tree) when Santa Claus arrives. She’s holding her own gifts and laughs at the jolly ol’elf, as if saying ‘I beat you’. She even frightens Santa when she kicks a light up likeness off him off the roof.
What is the point of this commercial? What did she win?
Does she think she’s in a competition with Santa for her children’s love? That’s extremely sad.
Nicholas helped children or gave them what they needed, because it was the right thing to do. Parents give gifts because they love their children, not because of some sick competition.
I had already thought up this blog before other news broke just before Christmas…
Bestbuys was having to cancel orders that had been made online going all the way back to Thanksgiving because they didn’t have enough of the merchandise.
The above ad suddenly vanished when this news was announced. (The ad no longer appears on YouTube.)
May we all remember Nicholas’ caring service to others, and live it through this New Year.
Blessed Christmas to you all.
Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL and to all—Get out of my way!
As wonderful a time of the year that Christmas is suppose to be, more often than not we hear people grumbling about not finding the right gift for the right people, or standing in line to buy the wind up monkey pocket vacuum because they couldn’t really find anything else. More likely they complain and curse about the parking lots around the shopping malls. “I only came for one thing, and spent an hour looking for a space to park.” So did everyone else, fella.
The other day a woman practically cursed out my mother who was only being nice to let her enter the store first. Thousands of people show up in shopping malls between Thanksgiving and Christmas that never go near those stores the rest of the year and we complain that they’re always in our way. Remember we’re a crowd to someone else.
As terrible as that all is I want you to think of something. Think of a young couple caught up in a crowd far worse then the one you were in today.
They had traveled a distance from their small town until they reached the city. Though the city is where the man’s family came from they may have been there before. The crowds have over flown the city having come from far and wide. To make matters worse none of his family wants to have anything to do with them. His aunt and uncle refuse to recognize them. His cousins would walk on the other side of the street when they approached.
Why was this?
Simple, they’re all offended by the fact that his young wife got knocked up before they were married. She claims the Holy Spirit visited her one night. So his family sees the girl as an adulterous (I chose not to use a stronger word) with a bastard son on the way. A ruin to the entire family.
Because of this none of his family will spare a room or roof for the young couple to spend the night while they’re in the city. They couldn’t even find a corner at the local pub. Someone finally took pity on the pregnant mother and let them spend the night out in the garage.
If it was today, imagine them in the back of the mall parking structure, stuck between SUVS in compact spaces. After all, the animals around them probably belonged to everyone who had traveled to the city for the census.
In the most crowded and dirty of cities a child is born.
So remember that on this Christmas Eve when you’re running out to find that last minute gift, for that aunt you forgot, and must fight the parking lot hordes rushing for the mall. Remember that Joseph and Mary struggled through far worse crowds in far dirtier environments and the gift they brought into the world is far greater than you can get at the mall or online.
On this eve of our savior’s birth, I wish you all a Merry Christmas.
God Bless,
Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity
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