Standard (EADGBE)

In an old city bar

That's never too far

From the places that gather

From the dreams that have been

In the safety of night

By an 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

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

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

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."

Then the bartender came out

From behind the bar

In all of his life

He was never that far

And he did something else

That he thought no one saw

And he took all the cash

From the register drawer

Then he followed the child

To the girl across 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

Then the cab drove away

And we saw in his hands

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

The child wasn't there

Just the wind and the snow

Waltzing dreams through the air

And 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

Wondered in on some bums

In the world where they hid

But they werent there

So they couldnt see

By an old neon star

On that night Christmas Eve

When the snow it was falling

The neon was calling

In case you should wonder

In case you should care

Why we on our own

Never went home

On that night of all nights

We were already there