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