Whoever Your Baby is, You Want Your Baby Home for Christmas

They’re singing, ‘Deck The Halls’
But it’s not like Christmas at all
‘Cause I remember when you were here
And all the fun we had last year

From Baby Please Come Home, sung by Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Singer Darlene Love every year on David Letterman’s show since 1986, in his last show before Christmas

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Our two granddaughters will be here with our oldest son and his wife.  One is now just old enough to begin to own her universe, and ours, when she is around.  The other is so young that her universe is still pretty small, but getting bigger by the hour, it seems.  So, yes, our “grandbaby” will be at home with us for Christmas.  And our youngest son and his wife, after time with her family, will make it to our place us for dinner on Christmas day.

They will be with us, and all will seem right in our corner of the world.

Why does this Letterman tradition endure?  Because, when all is said and done, every holiday celebration is all about the people you spend it with above all else.  And whoever your baby is, you want your baby to come home — so that home will seem like home, for Christmas.

One can’t help but think about the emptiness during this Christmas for many.  Christmas will seem utterly unbearable for the families of 20 precious children in Newtown, Connecticut and a group of brave adults who also lost their lives on what was supposed to be another day of learning and discovery.

Others have a “baby” at an outpost in Afghanistan, or some other far off spot somewhere around the world, and they will wish for their empty chairs to be filled with their loved ones.

And still others who face the sadness of some kind of estrangement in the family will wish for a sign of hope for reconciliation.  (Do you remember the “scary old man” reuniting with his family at the end of Home Alone?)

If you have your family with you, welcome the lovely.  And say a prayer for those who so wish theirs could be with them.

And if you work for a company or organization that ”feels like family,” don’t take that for granted.  That is not an easy reality to pull off.  And if it doesn’t “feel like family,” decide to help move it in that direction in the coming year.

Merry Christmas!

Here’s Darlene Love, age 71, in the 2012 version of this true Christmas Classic: