Long Way Home for Christmas: Country Christmas

The map light paints your letter gold

By the coffee cooling in my hand

Snow keeps laying down its quiet road

Past the pines and frozen farmland

You wrote, “The porch light’s on for you”

And drew a little crooked star

So I keep that paper by the wheel

And follow it through dark

I’m driving all night through the snow

With your welcome waiting where the warm windows glow

Every mile brings the morning near

Every white mile says you’re almost here

When the first bells ring and the kitchen fills with light

I’ll be home for Christmas morning, if I hold on tonight

A red barn leans beneath its quilt

The county line slips past and disappears

I stop for gas; the old man smiles

“Your people must be glad you’re near”

I call you from the payphone by the door

You say the kettle’s on again

Then I hear our little one ask softly

“Is Dad coming home before daybreak?”

I’m driving all night through the snow

With your welcome waiting where the warm windows glow

Every mile brings the morning near

Every white mile says you’re almost here

When the first bells ring and the kitchen fills with light

I’ll be home for Christmas morning, if I hold on tonight

The windshield clears, the eastern sky turns pale

Your red front door appears beyond the hill

You’re standing there in slippers and my old coat

And every mile goes quiet, standing still

I drove all night through the snow

To your open arms and the warm windows’ glow

Now the whole house wakes and the children cheer

And the long road falls away right here

As the first bells ring and the kitchen fills with light

I’m home for Christmas morning, and the world feels right

The porch light shines against the snow

I made it home; I’m home