"His Favorite Christmas Story"

Every year I try to get at least one new Christmas CD, just to keep my selection interesting. Last year it was Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong; this year it was a compilation album that happens to include this song.

Maybe I'm getting a little soft; maybe it's a Christmas thing. Whatever it is, I love this song.

--------------

His Favorite Christmas Story
By Capital Lights

He met her up in Delaware in 1937
She was wearing red lipstick to match her pretty dress
December 24th at a quarter to eleven
That's when he finally gained the courage to ask her to dance.

It was the night before Christmas, it was love at first sight
The carolers sang as they danced through the night
She was a small town girl, he was a traveling guy
He never caught her name before they said their goodbyes

A couple years later he was out on the road
Having Christmas dinner in a diner alone
When he saw a young waitress with a gleam in her eye
Her favorite day of the year, she showed her spirits were high

She said, "Sir, can you share a little holiday cheer?"
A simple Christmas story's all she wanted to hear
He looked prepared with a smile as he started to say,
"Here's my favorite Christmas story 'bout a girl with no name."
He said, "I met her up in Delaware in 1937
She was wearing red lipstick to match her pretty dress
December 24th at a quarter to eleven
Is when I finally gained the courage to ask her to dance."

Every holiday season as he traveled he'd tell
'Bout his Christmas dance partner that he never knew well
He'd share his favorite story with the locals he met
He was called the Christmas-Story-Telling Traveling Man

By age 53 he had done settled down
All the neighborhood kids liked to gather around
Just to listen to the stories of his life on the road
All he had now were these children he told

And every Christmas Eve they'd show up before dark
He'd tell them all the story but they knew it by heart
They could quote it word for word -- he always told it the same
It was his favorite Christmas story called "The Girl With No Name"

He said, "I met her up in Delaware in 1937
She was wearing red lipstick to match her pretty dress
December 24th at a quarter to eleven
Is when I finally gained the courage to ask her to dance."

Twenty years later as he took his last breaths
On a cold Christmas morning in a hospital bed
The children had grown, he had nobody left
Except the little old nurse who was holding his hand

He said, "Ma'am, could you share a little holiday cheer?"
A simple Christmas story's all he wanted to hear
But his eyes filled with tears at the words she spoke
Because his favorite Christmas story was the one that she told.

She said, "I met him up in Delaware in 1937
Though I never caught his name, he was a traveling man.
December 24th at a quarter to eleven --
I'm so glad he got the courage to ask me to dance."

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