[Verse 1]
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

[Chorus]
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

[Verse 2]
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
And the bartender gazed through the smoke and the haze
Through the window and ice to that corner streetlight
Where, standing alone by a broken pay phone
Was a girl, the child said could no longer get home
[Chorus]
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 already there"

[Verse 3]
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 drawer
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

[Chorus]
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
[Verse 4]
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

[Chorus]
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, there