There is something so timeless and classy about delivering or experiencing a toast on the holidays, but learning how to give a toast at Christmas dinner can feel like a bigger package to unravel then you bargened for. Rest assured that you most definitely have the Christmas magic inside of you to give a wonderful and heartwarming Christmas toast with your loved ones or impress your coworkers at the office holiday party.
Get your Santa hat, put a timer on for your cut-out cookies, and get ready to feel the Christmas spirit and learn how to give a toast at Christmas dinner!
How to Give a Toast at Christmas Dinner
We’ve all seen classic Christmas movies or magical TV show moments where someone clinks their glass, stands up, and begins to say a touching speech. Is that all just big movie screen magic, or can that happen in real life? Well, movies and TV shows are inspired by real life at times, so it’s totally possible!
It may seem tricky or out of your realm on how to give a toast at Christmas dinner, but you’ve got more magic in you then you may realize! Here are some tips on how you can initiate a Christmas toast, and stick around in this article to learn what you should say in your Christmas toast.
- Feel out the room before you decided you’d like to give a toast. Reading the room is a great way of insuring that you’re going to give your toast at the right time.
- Ask the host ahead of time if you can give a toast before or after dinner. This is a polite gesture if you’re going to someone else’s home for a Christmas dinner, and you can potentially find out if anyone else planned on saying a few words.
- Go over what you’d like to say a few times, practice in private. Just like actors and actresses practice their lines over and over again, to ensure that you’re comfortable and confident with the message you want to share, practice what you’d like to say for at least a few days before the Christmas dinner.
What Do You Say in a Christmas Toast
Christmas is a wonderful time for sentimental words, expressing your feelings, celebrating the joys that are around you, smiling and laughing, and being thankful for the people in your life. How can you compress all of that into one toast?
Here are a few key points you may want to think about including in your Christmas toast, but please do customize the words so they fit you and your situation.
- Keep your toast light-hearted. Christmas is a time filled with joy, and though it’s most certainly okay to shed light on overcoming an obstacle or acknowledging a tough year, try to keep your Christmas toast positive, merry, and thankful.
- Try to deliver a short toast. You don’t want to go full-blown monologue, but you also don’t want to say one sentence and sit down. A paragraph, which is around 3 sentences, would be a good in-between.
- Make everyone feel included. When you’re delivering a toast on such a heartwarming holiday like Christmas, it’s important to make sure your toast is addressing everyone. Spread your smile and eye-contact around the table and end your toast with an inclusive word like ‘everyone’.
- Incorporate the 3 elements. Sentiment, humor, and joy. You can achieve this by including a funny Christmas memory, or on the other hand a happy Christmas memory. Recite a nice or comical poem. By including elements of sentiment, humor, and joy you’re giving the listeners a well-rounded and joyous feeling from your Christmas toast.
If you’re running short on cheery or funny things to include in your Christmas toast, try looking through our sections below to get some Christmas inspiration!
Merry Passages to Recite
- “I made myself a snowball, as perfect as could be, I thought I’d keep it as a pet, and let it sleep with me. I made it some pajamas, and a pillow for its head, then last night it ran away, but first it wet the bed!” –Shel Silverstein
- “From home to home and heart to heart, from one place to another, the warmth and joy of Christmas brings us closer to each other.” -Emily Matthews
- “If you go out when it’s snowing, and look up at the sky. You’ll feel lot of icy kisses, as the snowflakes flutter by.” -Snow Kisses, Unknown Author
- “Maybe Christmas doesn’t come from a store, maybe Christmas perhaps means a little bit more.” -Dr. Seuss
- “May your holidays be happy days, filled with love and laughter. And may each day bring joy your way in the year that follows after!” -Merry Christmas, Unknown Author
Christmas Movie Quotes to Recite
- “Just remember, the true spirit of Christmas lies in your heart.” -The Polar Express, 2004
- “No one should be alone on Christmas.” -Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 2000
- “And we’re going to have the hap-hap-happiest Christmas.” -National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, 1989
- “Christmas is just about my favorite time. Ever since I was a little kid, I always felt like it was my own personal holiday.” -Ernest Saves Christmas, 1988
- “Bless this highly nutritious microwavable macaroni and cheese dinner and the people who sold it on sale. Amen.” -Home Alone, 1990
- “Christmas isn’t just a day, it’s a frame of mind.” -Miracle on 34th Street, 1994
- “I’m of the mindset that you can never do too much to make a child’s Christmas magical.” -Jingle All The Way, 1996
- “Christmas was on its way. Lovely, glorious, beautiful Christmas, upon which the entire kid year revolved.” -A Christmas Story, 1983
- “Just because you can’t see something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” -The Santa Clause, 1994
- “I realized that Christmas is the time to be with the people you love.” -Love Actually, 2003
- “Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhaps means a little bit more!” -How the Grinch Stone Christmas, 1966
- “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.” -Elf, 2003
- “That’s what Christmas memories are made from, they’re not planned, they’re not scheduled, nobody puts them in their Blackberry, they just happen.” -Deck the Halls, 2006
- “Nobody’s walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas.” -National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, 1989
- “Merry Christmas you filthy animal.” -Home Alone 2, 1992
- “A toy is never truly happy until it is loved by a child.” -Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, 1964
- “It’s Christmas Eve. It’s the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be.” -Scrooged, 1998
- “God bless us, every one!” -A Christmas Carol, 2009
- “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” -It’s a Wonderful Life, 1946
- “Cheer up, dude. It’s Christmas.” -Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 2000
TV Christmas Episode Quotes to Recite
- “In the end, the greatest snowball isn’t a snowball at all. It’s fear. Merry Christmas.” -Dwight K. Schrute, The Office
- “I’m the Holiday Armadillo! I’m a friend of Santa’s and he sent me here to wish you a ‘Merry Christmas!'” -Ross, FRIENDS
- “Dear Lord Santa, this year please bless me with a calendar of Australian firefighters holding puppies in casual settings.” -Tina Belcher, Bob’s Burgers
- “Whether there’s a Santa Claus or not, that’s not why I love Christmas. When I was kid, no matter how bad things got, my mother always managed to make Christmas Eve magical. Every year, she would put on the “Nutcracker Suite”. I thought if she can do that in our tiny apartment when money was tight and we were alone, it gave me hope that things could get better… I love that feeling, that sense of hope. It’s crazy, you know, on the shortest, darkest days of the year, people of all faiths celebrate the light.” -Richard Castle, Castle
- “Christmas is the time to tell people how you feel.” -Jim Halpert, The Office
Bible Passages to Recite
- “For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over His kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.” -Isaiah 9:6-7
- “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” -Romans 15:13 (NIV)
- “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” -Isaiah 7:14
- “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16
- “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy — the Son of God.” -Luke 1:26-35
- “Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever!” -Psalm 107:1
- “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.” -Zechariah 9:9 (NKJV)
- “And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a Baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!” -Luke 2:8-14
- “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” -2 Corinthians 9:15 (NKJV)
- “He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” -John 1:10-13 (NKJV)
No matter how Christmas dinner looks for you and those close to you, you can give them a lovely toast to look back on and smile for years to come now that you know how to give a toast at Christmas dinner. Let the celebration begin!