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 [bad word] 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