The Perfect Toast
With New Year's Eve and New Year's Day coming up, a few toast tips can make you
the hit of the party.
Tips for Successful Toasting
Be prepared. Rehearse it.
Keep it short. One minute is ideal. Three minutes is maximum.
The host should make the first toast. Ask the host's permission before you follow with your own toast.
Toasts should be well thought out and should enhance the presentation.
Keep it light, politically correct, complimentary, sincere and tasteful.
Tipsy toasts are a no-no. If you've had too much to drink, let someone else do the honors.
Don't try to be funny if you're not naturally funny.
Avoid the trite, the political, the put-down and the off-color.
Can't come up with anything snappy for the New Year? Here's a selection of toasts, some once uttered by famous and witty people, some from less auspicious sources.
"Life, alas, is very drear. Up with
the glass, down with the beer."
~U.S. poet Louis Untermeyer "We are all of us in the gutter,
but some of us are looking up at the stars."
~Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist and poet "It is better to spend money like
there is no tomorrow than to spend tonight like there's no money."
~P.J. O'Rourke, U.S. author "Be not forgetful to entertain
strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
~Hebrews 13:2 "May you live all the days of your life."
~Jonathan Swift "May the best day of your past be the worst day of
your future."
"May your home always be too small to hold all of
your friends."
"May you live as long as you want and never want
as long as you live."
"May the good Lord take a liking to you, but not too
soon."
"May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full
moon on a dark night, and the road downhill all the way to your door."
"May your neighbors respect you, trouble neglect
you, the angels protect you, and heaven accept you."
"Dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no
one were listening and live every day as if it were your