He met her up in Delaware in 1937 She was wearing red lipstick to match her pretty dress December 24th at a quarter till eleven is 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 shed a little holiday cheer A simple Christmas story was all she wanted to hear He looked prepared with a smile as he started to say here's my favorite Christmas story about 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 till eleven is when I finally gained the courage to ask her to dance Every holiday season as he traveled he'd tell about 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 his stories about his life on the road All he had now were these children he told And every Christmas eve they showed 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 till eleven is when I finally gained the courage to ask her to dance Twenty years later as he took his last breath It was on a cold Christmas morning in a hospital bed The children were grown, he had nobody left Except the little old nurse who was holding his hand He said Ma'am can you share a little holiday cheer A simple Christmas story was all he wanted to hear But his eyes filled with tears at the words that 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 till eleven I'm so glad he got the courage to ask me to dance