In an old city bar
That is never too far
From the places that gather

The dreams that have been

In the safety of night

With its old neon light
It beckons to strangers
And they always come in


And the snow it was falling
The neon was calling

The music was low
And the night
Christmas Eve


And here was the danger
That even with strangers

Inside of this night
It's easier to believe


Then the door opened wide
And a child came inside
That no one in the bar

Had seen there before

And he asked did we know

That outside in the snow
That someone was lost
Standing outside our door


Then the bartender gazed
Through the smoke and the haze

Through the window and ice
To a corner streetlight


Where standing alone
By a broken pay phone
Was a girl the child said

Could no longer get home

And the snow it was falling

The neon was calling
The bartender turned
And said, not that I care

But how would you know this?
The child said I've noticed
If one could be home

They'd be all ready there

Then the bartender came out from behind the bar

And in all of his life he was never that far
And he did something else that he thought no one saw
When he took all the cash from the register draw


Then he followed the child to the girl cross the street
And we watched from the bar as they started to speak

Then he called for a cab and he said J.F.K.
Put the girl in the cab and the cab drove away
And we saw in his hand

That the cash was all gone
From the light that she had wished upon


If you want to arrange it
This world you can change it
If we could somehow make this

Christmas thing last

By helping a neighbor

Or even a stranger
And to know who needs help
You need only just ask


Then he looked for the child
But the child wasn't there

Just the wind and the snow
Waltzing dreams through the air

So he walked back inside
Somehow different I think

For the rest of the night
No one paid for a drink

And the cynics will say
That some neighborhood kid

Wandered in on some bums
In the world where they hid

But they weren't there
So they couldn't see

By an old neon star
On that night, Christmas Eve

When the snow it was falling
The neon was calling

And in case you should wonder
In case you should care

Why we're on our own
Never went home
On that night of all nights

We were already there

THEN ALL AT ONCE INSIDE THAT NIGHT
HE SAW IT ALL SO CLEAR
THE ANSWER THAT HE SOUGHT SO LONG
HAD ALWAYS BEEN SO NEAR


IT'S EVERY GIFT THAT SOMEONE GIVES
EXPECTING NOTHING BACK
IT'S EVERY KINDNESS THAT WE DO
EACH SIMPLE LITTLE ACT