• Setup:

  This status is used while the tournament is still being setup.

• Open:

  This status means tournament registration is open. Families can register for the tournament.

• Drops Only:

  This status means only registration drops are allowed. There are no new entries allowed but families can drop entries.

• Closed:

  This status means registration is currently closed for the tournament. There are no adds or drops allowed. Please contact the tournament director with any questions.

• Completed:

  This status means the tournament is completed.

TOURNAMENT DATES & LOCATIONS:

Thursday, December 11 - PARIAMENTARY DEBATE

Lifespring AG Church
1224 Main Street
Riverside, CA 92501

Friday, December 12

LD  DEBATE

Lifespring AG Church
1224 Main Street
Riverside, CA 92501

TP DEBATE

LOCATION TBD

Saturday, December 13 - ALL STOA SPEECH EVENTS

California Baptist University
8432 Magnolia Avenue
Riverside, CA 92504

The Christmas Colloquium wants to say a big THANK YOU to our donors!

Chick-fil-a.

3640 Central Ave. Riverside  92506

Make sure and judge rounds so that your name is entered to win.

BEFORE YOU REGISTER:

THINGS to remember -

1.   Parent must create their family profile in STOAHUB and add their students.
2.   Request membership to an official Stoa club.
3.   If club does not exist in StoaHub, the club director needs to create it.
4.   Must complete and pay for Stoa annual registration. 

Once a student has joined a club, and paid for registration, they are eligible to register for tournaments. 

MUST BE DONE PRIOR TO REGISTRATION

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Student Check-In, Ballot Push, etc. will be located in the BREEZEWAY. At the Door dropped events will incur a $30 fee to be paid upon check-in. (CASH ONLY)

PARENTS:

All parents are needed to judge. Orientation will be offered at 7:50 am & 9:00 am for new parent judges, Stoa alumni, and community judges in Business Building Innovators room. Stoa alumni are invited to judge and encouraged to attend orientation. Please invite your club alumni to judge as many rounds as possible to help the schedule.

TIMERS:

All rooms will be set up with the "Big Red Timers" The head judge in each room will be responsible to start and stop the timepiece for each speaker and announce the time to the other judges. Please allow only 2 minutes in between speakers for ballot notes.

DO NOT CALL THE CAMPUS FOR ANY REASON

ALL questions and concerns before and during the Christmas Colloquium should be directed to

Elle Almer 951-966-8987 colloquiumtournaments@gmail.com

I am looking forward to the tournament and all that the Lord is doing in STOA. Thank you for your prayers and patience throughout the process of planning this event.

FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS:

Close out the day with a visit to the Festival of Lights at the Mission Inn just 10 minutes north of CBU. In addition to the beautiful holiday lights the Festival offers shopping, ice skating and Christmas music until 11pm on Saturday evening.

Serving with joy,
Elle Almer

ENTRY FEES & DEADLINES

Registration Opens: Monday, October 20, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Registration Closes: Monday, November 3, 2025 at 3:00 PM

FEES

$45 for debate event

$35 for the first speech event.

$25 for each additional speech event

A Student may register for a maximum of 6 events/ 3 per pattern.
We recommend you only sign up for three events per pattern. Please use discretion when signing up for events and only register for the number that you feel confident you can handle during a round of 1 hour and 45 minutes. We are unable to let the tournament get delayed or behind if someone comes late to their last speech in a round.

Payment is due at the time of registration.

REGISTRATION IS NOT COMPLETE UNTIL PAYMENT IS RECEIVED

REFUNDS

• October 20 - November 3 ~

        REFUNDS AVAILABLE

• November 4 – November 22 ~

        NO REFUNDS & DROP FEE OF $20 PER EVENT

•  November 23 - December 11 (On Site) ~

         NO REFUNDS & DROP FEE OF $30 PER EVENT

In order to be eligible to compete in your other events, drop fees must be paid prior to the tournament. There will be a $30 fee for ANY event that is dropped at on-site student check-in. In order to be eligible to compete in your other events, this fee must be paid in cash at student check-in before the tournament begins.

DUOS: Your duo partner must also be registered and paid to confirm that you are registered in the duo event.

THINK TWICE - REGISTER ONCE:

What do we mean? Once you register, please do NOT drop an event. Consider carefully before registering for events – do I have time to prepare for all the events I am registering for?

1.  Registration is a commitment to compete.

2.  It creates a great deal of work for volunteer staff running registration.

3.  It creates a serious disruption for the tournament

4.  Tabulation has to redo the postings

5.  Trophies and awards are disrupted

6.  It can create cost waste because it affects the awards order

7.  It can create a situation where we do not have the minimum number of competitors which causes us to cancel an event.

NOTIFY REGISTRAR

at colloquiumtournaments@gmail.com of any event drops after registration closes and prior to the tournament day.
Tournament directors have the option to incorporate a policy where registration fees are not returned.

DROPPING AN EVENT:

Dropped events will incur a $30 fee PER EVENT payable (IN CASH ONLY) at check-in!

DRIVING DIRECTIONS

PARKING - Please park in campus LOT 1

PARENTS:

You will need to check in at the same time as your student. After confirming that both competitor and parent judge are present, the student will be able to compete. Because this is a busy time of year, we do not know what to expect with regards to community judge turnout. You are the lifeblood of the tournament! Your presence on campus and willingness to take ballots is essential.  Check with Ballot Push 45 minutes before rounds to take ballots.

TO ALL PARENTS OF COMPETITORS:

We ask that you please review and abide by the following:

• Every competitor must be accompanied by a parent.
• Your student will not be able to check-in at the tournament without an accompanying parent.
• All parents are expected to judge.
• You will need to register as a judge before completing your student registration.
• For each speech event that your student(s) are registered in, you must judge at least every other round.

Judge Orientation will be offered 45 minutes before each round.
All parents must report to Ballot Push 30 minutes prior to each debate round to assure that all judging slots are filled. In truth, parent judges are needed every round of the tournament, especially during this busy time of year where we may not have as many community judges available. Your willingness to judge helps to ensure the tournament runs on schedule.

Thank you for your commitment to these students. We hope that you have a great tournament!

PLEASE NOTE:

Each registered family needs to have a parent judging for them. If you can not attend the entire tournament with your student, please do not register. Thank you for your understanding and efforts to make The Christmas Colloquium successful!

INVITE A FRIEND:

Speech and Debate is one of the best kept secrets in the home school community, and a tournament is an excellent opportunity to introduce other families to this special community. Please invite at least one family to help judge and experience this amazing training ground for public speaking and critical thinking.

JUDGE ORIENTATION:

Offered 45 mins. before EVERY round. This will be held in the INNOVATORS ROOM.

If this is your first time judging you must attend judge orientation. Ballots will be distributed at the end of the orientation.

Each competitor is required to provide a PARENT judge for each round on the schedule.

We need YOU! Watch this video created by Stoa.

When PARENTS judge!

JUDGE REGISTRATION OPEN:

Monday, September 22, 2025 at 8:00 AM

We kindly request YOUR HELP to ensure the tournament is running on schedule by checking in 45 minutes prior to each round at the ballot push table.

Please plan to attend a training session held forty-five minutes prior to the round you are scheduled to judge. The round you judge will last approximately 1½ hours. After the round, please allow around thirty minutes to fill out your ballot. A total of approximately 2½ hours is needed to complete one round. Due to time constraints, it is not feasible to judge two rounds consecutively. Judging every other round is easily done, as you only have to attend the training session prior to the first round that you judge.

JUDGING INCENTIVES - 

ALUMNI STUDENTS:

Judge 3 rounds will receive an In N Out $10 gift card

ALL JUDGES:

A raffle tickets will be given for each round judged for the Raffle Basket

STUDENT RECRUITMENT:

$50 CASH will be awarded for the student with the HIGHEST number of COMMUNITY JUDGE rounds judged.

PARLI DEBATE

Thursday, December 11th
Debate Check-In: 7:30 AM

LIFESPRING AG CHURCH
1224 Main Street
Riverside, CA 92501

DEBATE EVENTS:

Parliamentary Debate: $45

Timing:
Debate Competitors are expected to self-time their rounds and must bring their own timer.  Cell phones may not be used as timers.

DEBATE

Friday, December 12th
Debate Check-In: 8:00 AM

LINCOLN-DOUGLAS

LIFESPRING AG CHURCH
1224 Main Street
Riverside, CA 92501

TEAM POLICY

Location TBD

DEBATE EVENTS: 

Team Policy Debate: $45
Lincoln-Douglas: $45

Timing:
Debate Competitors are expected to self-time their rounds and must bring their own timer.  Cell phones may not be used as timers.

Team Policy Resolution:
Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially reform its policy toward one or more countries in Central/South America.

Lincoln-Douglas Resolution:
Resolved: In foreign policy, diplomacy is more effective than military intervention.

SPEECH RULES & BALLOTS

Saturday, December 13th
Speech Check-In: 7:30 AM

California Baptist University
8432 Magnolia Avenue
Riverside, CA 92504

SPEECH EVENTS: 

First speech event $35
Each additional speech event $25

Limited Prep
Apologetics
Extemporaneous
Impromptu
Mars Hill
Interpretive
Dramatic Interp
Duo Interp
Humorous Interp
Open Interp
Platform
Original Oratory
Persuasive
Expository
Wild Card
Slam Poetry

APOLOGETICS:

Description: The competitor is given four (4) minutes to prepare a persuasive, and reasoned speech that defends a tenet of the Christian faith.

Goal: Competitors will be motivated to study, articulate, and defend the core issues of their faith in a knowledgeable, sincere, and respectful manner. The focus may or may not be evangelistic. Content is key: greater weight should be given to the speech content, rather than the presentation style.
Apologetics Rules

The following categories will be used at the 2025 Christmas Colloquium:

Category 1: The Nature and Character of God
Category 4: God and Man
Category 5: Christian World View Application

Stoa has updated the Apologetics Questions and ballot for this year, visit the StoaHub for a current list.

MARS HILL:

Description: The competitor uses books, movies, and other genre to discuss the appeal and impact of the theme(s) within the topic, holding them up in light of Christian truth found in the Bible
Goals: The competitor learns to relate cultural references to themes common in humanity to find common ground and draw the listener to Christian truths. The competitor will share Biblical principles on a conversational, personal level to inspire reflection, understanding that God’s truth is not divorced from culture
Recommendation: For competitors 14 and older or with the parental consent due to some mature themes.
Mars Hill Rules
Mars Hill Overview

Stoa has updated the topics and ballot: for this year.

The following list of topic categories will be used at the 2024 Christmas- Colloquium.

From the Stoa list of Mars Hill Topics

• Chistmas Visual Arts
• Current Film & Television
• Literature

CHRISTMAS Visual Arts:

1. Winter Landscape by Caspar David Friedrich (1811)

2. Nativity by Giotto (1303-05)

3. Nativity at Night by Geertgen tot Sint Jans (c 1490)

4. A Winter Scene with Skaters near a Castle by Hendrick Avercamp (1608-9)

5. The Census at Bethlehem by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1566)

6. The Annunciation by Fra Angelico (1438-45)

7. The Adoration of the Shepherds by Guido Reni (c 1640)

8. Mystic Nativity by Sandro Botticelli (1500)

9. Merry Christmas by Viggo Johansen (1891)

10. Merry Christmas, Grandma by Norman Rockwell (1951)

11. Man Tangled Up in Christmas Decorations by Al Brule (1953)

12. Three Wise Men by Salvador Dali (1947)

100% E-SCRIPT SUBMISSION

Opens: Monday, November 3, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Closes: Friday, November 21, 2025 at 9:00 PM

Direct questions regarding script submission to: colloquiumscripts@gmail.com

More details to follow soon with a link for script uploading.

The Stoa website has provided detailed information here

Tutorial video for script submission

Electronic Script Submissions submitted in entirety AND approved BEFORE

Monday, November 10th at 9:00 PM

will be entered in a drawing to win a prize! 3 students names will be drawn.

The deadline for ALL electronic script submission is Friday, November 21st at 9:00 PM. 

ALL scripts must be submitted by NOVEMBER 21st.

No electronic scripts will be accepted after this date.

The tournament will NOT receive late scripts. A script that is submitted after Friday, November 21st deadline may be considered for review if there are extenuating circumstances and there has been communication with the script submission team. If reviewed and accepted, a $50 late fee will apply, payable by CASH at Student Check-In.