The Nightmare After Christmas

Lyrics

[INTRODUCTION] [VERSE 1] The wrapping paper’s in the trash The tree is leaning by the curb The manger’s packed in tissue With the angels and the myrrh The lights come down on Spruce Street One porch at a time And the star that crowned the steeple Gets boxed up with the twine The stores are full of returns now The roads are full of salt And everybody’s back to work Like nothing happened at all The carols leave the radio The clearance signs arrive And peace on Earth gets marked down To make room for next July [PRE-CHORUS] And I swear I saw a shadow Where the morning should have been Not a monster Not a demon Just December starting over again [CHORUS] The nightmare after Christmas Isn’t fire in the streets It’s waking up unchanged After everything we’ve seen It’s the poor still standing outside It’s the lonely still unseen It’s a world that met the manger And went back to the machine [VERSE 2] The credit card keeps charging The thermostat stays low The widow eats the leftovers From a meal she had alone The nurse is still exhausted The shelter’s still overrun The father still keeps counting hours The mother still hides from her son The mailbox keeps its secrets In envelopes marked past due And the child who prayed for healing Is still waiting for the news The preacher takes his robe off The choir folds the page And the King we sang was coming Gets left laying in the hay [PRE-CHORUS] And I swear I heard the future In the silence after prayer Not a warning Not a trumpet Just a question hanging there [CHORUS] The nightmare after Christmas Isn’t something yet to come It’s finding out tomorrow We’re still becoming what we’ve become It’s the bells no longer ringing It’s the candles losing flame It’s waking from the story And refusing to be changed [BRIDGE] What if the ghost doesn’t point To some grave beneath the snow? What if he just shows us Tuesday And the lives we already know? The table with no extra chair The church with no room left The hospital still arguing With a child beneath its breath The manger on Main Street We walked past in the cold The hands we could have opened But were too afraid to hold The Scrooge we kept pretending Was a stranger in the room The dream we kept defending While it slowly became our tomb What if the chains we’re dragging Were never locked at all? What if healing stood there knocking And we missed it after all? [BREAKDOWN] Don’t let us sleep through the morning Don’t let us dress up the dark Don’t let us worship the story And walk away unchanged in our hearts Don’t let the songs be the ending Don’t let the lights be the proof Don’t let us call it Christmas If we won’t make room for You [FINAL CHORUS] The nightmare after Christmas Isn’t fire in the streets It’s waking up unchanged After everything we’ve seen The nightmare after Christmas Isn’t something yet to come It’s finding out tomorrow We’re still becoming what we’ve become But the story isn’t over If the door is open still If the light remains in windows If the wounded dare to heal So wake us from the nightmare Before the dawn is gone Let Christmas be the morning Not the dream we’re sleeping on [OUTRO] The tree is by the curbside The angels are packed away But somewhere in the darkness The child still calls our name And if we hear Him calling If we finally come alive Then the nightmare after Christmas Doesn’t have to survive