Holiday Cheer Just Pours Out of Me!
While it seems like every year the tinsel and ornaments come out at the mall earlier and earlier, the moment they appear they bring a huge smile to my face! This weekend I was at out local mall, the Mall at Short Hills, with my daughter Emma and my nice Emilia and I saw THE MOST PRECIOUS sign with two dachshunds wearing Santa hats. Apparently there is a night at the mall to bring your dog to sit on Santa’s lap! But, as a long time professional voiceover actor with years of experience, I do not need the tinsel and Christmas trees to let me know that the holidays are approaching! Those holiday spots start pouring in pretty early in October and typically go through December and really keep me on my toes! I love being the voice of holiday cheer and this is my season of Joy!
The Warm Greeting
One of the most fun parts of the season is all of the holiday telephony work that I voice! From on hold messages to holiday greetings, starting with Thanksgiving, and running through Christmas and New Years most of my regular clients change their greetings. There is a practical purpose that they need to alert their clients to the changed hours. But there is also a clear tone of holiday spirit! These scripts are all written with warmth, well-wishes, and often humor. The good spirit that comes through is a true delight. I enjoy the opportunity to bring personality and pure joy to these telephony spots. For those of us who do a lot of corporate IVR, this is the most fun time of the year as a professional voiceover actor. From Whole Foods Market to Coast Business Supply, I work with all sorts of companies to spread holiday cheer to their clients when they call. This is also a great chance to let clients know of holiday promotions that they companies have going on, so these messages have an added layer of importance. I have even had the opportunity to voice the outgoing messages for the companies that hire me to do the telephony work, and I can’t think of a bigger holiday treat than that!
The Holiday Retail Spot
In my years in voiceover, most of my work has been commercial work. From TV to radio, I love the retail read, and we all know that Black Friday is they day of days for retail! Last year I was shocked and delighted to learn that Black Friday has made its way across the pond to Europe and I even had a radio spot in French for Black Friday! Now with the addition of Cyber Monday, there is yet another opportunity for retail spots. Holiday commercial voiceover opportunities are certainly abundant this time of year, and delivering the voice of holiday cheer is something that I look forward to all year! Whether it is 15 or 30 second spot or a tag, the commercial voiceover holiday read is an opportunity to add sparkle and joy during this happy season.
Toys
It would be hard to think of the holidays and not associate toys with the season in some way. As a child, I loved both the “Kiddy City” and the “Toys r Us” commercials and was so excited for them. Growing up in Philadelphia, we had many holiday traditions actually. We would take the train to Center City. There, we would go see the lights show at Lord N’ Taylor. They had a Christmas Wonderland set up and we would look at all of the toys. There as a tiny train that went around the ceiling for little kids and my sister and I loved it! Those were the days when you never went home with something and kids only got toys on holidays and birthdays, so everything seemed so special and so luxurious. I think being so enamored with the amazing set up had an impact on me that shapes my voice work every day, It feels like just yesterday I was there with Julie, walking hand in hand, and we were mesmerized. That joy never left me.
Now I have the amazing opportunity to actually voice toys when I do character work. I often work with companies that create the prototypes. Because of non disclosure agreements, I cannot disclose the toys, but I can say that I have voiced toys that are on the shelves of a Target near you! Knowing that these toys will go home and be loved and become part of someone’s childhood memories means the world to me and I am so delighted for this special voiceover work.
Holiday Traditions
We have a lot of holiday traditions in my family! Most of them involve food. Every year we make holiday cookies with my mom and sister and the kids and we decorate them. We make latkes and we light candles. We sing lots of songs. We spend a lot of time together and we eat. A lot. But being with my family around the holidays makes me so so happy, and it is that happiness that I bring to every single holiday spot that I voice.
