How Letterman became our family's Christmas symbol

For the first time in 10 Christmases, David Letterman will not be making an appearance in my house for the holidays. Why, you might ask, would David Letterman be in my house at Christmas? Well, I will tell you.

It all started 10 years ago Christmas eve. Our family was all home for the holidays and most had headed to bed for the night. My brother and one of my sisters were up into the wee hours as they often do. The later the evening got, the funnier everything was.

Suddenly, they saw the copy of the TV Times on the table. (It was 10 years ago, this was before the guide became extinct for all but my friend Susan's parents.) The cover of the guide was a picture of David Letterman.  Why? I don't know. Go with it.

The two trouble makers got an idea and ran to the kitchen for scissors and string. They cut out David's head, put a hole through his forehead (five-head) and hid him amidst the decorations on the tree. They wanted to know who would notice the disembodied head of David Letterman floating on the Christmas tree.  They went to bed, not with sugar plums, but with mischievousness dancing in their heads.

A sampling of David decorating

The next day they giggled to themselves as we had our Christmas celebrations. We had pictures taken of the family opening presents and enjoying the day. No one noticed the head. Once it was pointed out, we all laughed our faces off. It was the last Christmas we had with our mother and there was a David Letterman head in every picture we took.

We loved it and vowed to make it a tradition.

Since then, I have put David's head on every tree we've had. Last year, I copied the original, laminated it, and sent one to each sibling. It must have been fortuitous because this year, with all our belongings in storage, we aren't decorating for Christmas.

The tradition of the floating head of David will have to carry on somewhere else.

Until next year.