The New Year is often depicted as a new baby. Then too every New Year’s Day newspapers are full of photographs of the first baby New Year baby. Those babies though, grow and in a short time it is their Christening or Baptismal day. Whatever sort of speech is given at a New Year Party the one given at a Christening party is different. It speaks of the joy the baby has brought. It mentions the meaning of the church ceremony. It welcomes those who are sharing in the happiness that a child’s birth brings. It is a family occasion and it is fitting to mention the new expanded family and their role in the child’s life. It is fitting too to mention the Godparents and their special part in the baby’s development. Above all the speech should end with a toast to, or a blessing for the new arrival.

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New Year’s Eve is a time for parties and promises. In fact if we all kept our New Year resolutions we’d all be thinner and healthier. Nobody would smoke and alcohol sales would fall dramatically. Most of us don’t, however, keep our resolutions. Maybe it’s because they demand such an effort. Perhaps it would be easier to keep them if we made ourselves easier pledges. Maybe we could promise ourselves that, when driving, we would give way to another vehicle at least once a day. We could promise ourselves that we would smile at those people we meet regularly at a bus stop or at the station. Neither of these things takes much effort but can be very rewarding. You might get into the habit of being a courteous driver and, who knows, you might make a new friend at that bus stop. New Year’s Eve is a time for gatherings with families and friends. Maybe you could speak at that New Year’s party and encourage others to look back at their memories of 2011 and look forward to doing something positive in 2012.

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Love them or loath them few of us would actually try to change our given names.  Some are given family names, others the names of film stars or sporting personalities and these can, intimately, date a child. How we get our names is something else. For Christians there is a Christening or Baptismal ceremony at which the baby is named. Jews have a Brit Milah ceremony for boys or a reading of the Torah for girls, both followed by a family celebration. For others it is simply a question of habit. They are simply named by their parents and the name sticks. Muslims have their baby naming ceremony within seven days of the birth.  Others have a childhood name and are given a more adult name later on. A Hindu pundit calculates the lucky initials for a baby according to the astrological constellation which agrees with the child’s exact moment of birth. Whether the parents are humanist or Buddhist, though, the arrival of a baby is an occasion for a family get together and a celebration. Whether they have religious beliefs or not the hope of the parents is that the new baby will be blessed all the days of his or her life. Whether that child likes his or her name is, of course, an entirely different matter.

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A christening or baptism is a new start. It is a special family occasion and should be celebrated as such. Whether you are the parent or godparent of the child in question it is up to you to mark the occasion by giving a little speech and by toasting the baby in question. Naturally such a speech should refer to innocence and the wonder of childhood. It might contain a light-hearted reference to the way babies keep parents awake at night. Certainly it will be a speech where you express your hopes for the future of the baby. Every baby is different and so too are family circumstances. So the christening may be a big posh event or a small family affair. Yet the wishes for the child will be similar in most cases. Obviously you will wish the baby health and happiness in life. You may wish to refer to the religious aspect of the day and what it has meant. As a God parent especially you may wish to confirm the vows you took in church and say that you will always take a special interest in the child’s spiritual as well as his or her temporal wellbeing. Try to end your speech with a toast that expresses your love for the baby in a special and memorable way.

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Share your beliefs. That’s something every good speechwriter should do. If your daughter is sweet sixteen or you are speaking as the father of the bride you should share your belief that she is special in every way. If, as a student, you feel exams should be abolished you should share that belief too. Your classmates will undoubtedly agree with you whatever about your teachers. If you feel persistence, patience and passion are the secrets of success you should be able to convince others of the fact too. Every speaker who stands up in public should have a belief that he or she wants to share. If you think that euthanasia is murder not mercy convince others with your arguments. If you believe that soccer is the beautiful game tell the world about it. Even when you are speaking at a birthday party your belief that the birthday boy or girl deserves praise and good luck wishes should come across in your toast. If you are talking at a baptism your belief in the importance of the sacrament should feature in what you say. If you don’t have such a belief, don’t speak.

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Keep it in the family. That could be a good rule for many speechwriters. After all there are plenty of family occasions where a speech is appropriate. There are times when what you say will be remembered and even cherished for years to come. Start at the beginning by giving a speech at your child’s christening or at his or her first birthday. Speaking of birthdays why not give a speech at your mother’s 60th or at your father’s 70th birthday? If either of them is retiring it’s a good excuse to have a party and say a few words about a life well spent juggling work and after the family. What about graduation day? It’s another time when what you say is important. If, sadly, your brother or sister dies a thoughtful eulogy given by you will give great comfort to the other family members. Loving words should not be limited to your immediate blood family either. The step-father of the bride might well express his love for his step-child at her wedding. Of course a wedding anniversary is definitely a time for a relevant toast. So if your parents are 50 years married speak out about those golden years. Finally families are precious so why not have a get together and say a few words about a family re-union and how important it is to keep in touch? Such speeches turn family milestones into intimate and memorable occasions.

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Researching a name for a baby is one of the excitements of pregnancy. Many parents spend months going through books looking for the ideal name. They discuss it with friends and colleagues. They research the family tree to find out what their ancestors were called. Often the mother and father will have differing views on what their child should be called. There may even be quite heated discussions on the matter. It’s important to get it right. Everyone knows someone who simply hates their name and certainly there will be those who wonder how on earth parents found a particular name. After all a name is something that defines who you are. For Christians the Baptism or Christening ceremony is special. It is a day when a child is named and brought into the church. For Jews the day of the Brit Milah ceremony is the one where boys are named while girls are named during a worship service where the Torah is read. Both Christening and Brit Milah occasions are often marked with a family party or get-together. For those with no religious beliefs the baby’s name may be just formally registered. That seems a pity because the day your baby is named is, in the words of the old song,” The start of something great.”

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Having a de-baptism ceremony is a bit like trying to forget the gender with which you were born. It is merely a symbolic gesture by those who no longer want to be considered Christians. It is trying to do away with what they actually are whether they like it or not. Yet by blowing away their Christianity with a hairdryer they are having a ceremony rather like the baptism they profess was merely symbolic.  As their parents chose to have them baptised they are telling their parents that they don’t want their values for life. Yet these same people will have accepted food, clothing and education from their parents. They will have learnt their manners and morals from their parents. They will have been given a name by their parents. The one thing they refuse to accept is the fact that their parents had them baptised in the belief that the Christian way of life is a good one. Do they also choose to throw back in the faces of those parents everything else that was done for them and given to them?
There is no doubt but that thee are faults with religion and the religious. Living a truly Christian life though is surely the ideal. In a world full of materialism, greed and corruption they might do well to look at the innocence of a newly baptised child and see that its goodness is the real hope for the future.

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Love is in the air. As the 14th February approaches every store has its Valentine cards and its gifts. Hotels are offering romantic meals and get-away breaks. Romeo’s and Juliet are trying to compose loving sonnets and songwriters are trying to write new songs about love.
It’s worth remembering, though, that there are different kinds of love. The father of the bride giving a speech on his daughter’s wedding day will say how much he loves her and his toast will wish her all the happiness in the world.
A birthday speech for a mother will usually be given because she is special to her son or daughter. That son or daughter wants to tell her how much her family appreciates all she has done for them during her lifetime.
Love can be shown in action too, by volunteering to help others. The thousands of people who raise funds, work in third world countries or with those who are ill, poor or homeless are all expressing love in a very special way. You can love a sport or a type of food. Love is being expressed by the godparent who gives a christening or baptismal speech or the grandchild who gives a eulogy at his/her grandmother’s funeral.
In fact the more you think about it the more you realise that love really does make the world go around.

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The news of an impending baby is greeted in many different ways. For some poor people there is consternation as they worry about another mouth to feed. For others there is delight the prospect of a son to inherit the family farm. Yet more worry about the baby’s health especially if there is an inherited genetic problem in the family. For most people though there is a mixture of delight, excitement and a little apprehension thrown in for good measure.
Whatever about planned parenthood there is plenty of work to be done when you know the baby is on the way. Will the mother continue working? What colour will you paint the nursery and what sort of buggy or car restraint will you buy?  Then there is the whole question of what will the baby be named?
Christians baptise their children of course and often a parent or a Godparent will give a Christening or baptismal speech… Jews on the other hand will have a Brit Milah ceremony at which the baby will be named.  Others don’t bother with any ceremony and simply call the child after its father or its grandmother or even a famous film or sporting star. Some of the names given will be so odd or embarrassing that, once the children have grown, they will change it by deed poll.
Whether you have a baby shower or not a baby is usually welcomed for what they are.
When you look at their tiny hands, their wide eyed gaze and feel their soft, soft skin you know every baby born is simply another miracle.

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