- Coming off the drugs, Joe immediately starts tapping again. But then he suddenly realizes something: he has a new nurse.
- The new nurse has lighter footsteps than his regular nurse, and Joe guesses that she is younger.
- The nurse throws back his covers to look at him, and Joe expects her to be like the other nurses: he expects her to stare or cry or run out of the room. Instead, she puts her hand on Joe's forehead.
- Joe realizes that with this new nurse, there's an opportunity for someone to finally understand what he is trying to do with the tapping. He's about to start, but then she unbuttons his nightshirt and starts to trace something on his chest.
- After she traces it, the nurse pauses to see if Joe understands. He shakes his head no, and she traces it again. Joe realizes that she has traced the letter M on his chest.
- The nurse traces out MERRY CHRISTMAS on Joe's chest. Joe realizes that his regular nurse must have left for the holidays, and he is ecstatic at finally not being alone after five or six years.
- He remembers past Christmases and how his mother would read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the family when they were in Shale City.
- Afterward, Joe's mother would read the story of Christ's birth from the Bible. Joe has never read the story himself but can remember his mother reading it. He recounts his own, um, slightly modified version of the story (he essentially modernizes it):
- It's tax time, and people are going to Bethlehem, including a carpenter from Nazareth named Joseph. His wife Mary is pregnant, so they get a late start. Mary's worried because she's, you know, pregnant.
- Joseph can't find a room at any of the cheap rooming houses, because everyone else has beaten him there. He and Mary decide to try a hotel, but those are filled, too. Joseph tells the hotel manager that Mary is about to have a baby, and they need a place to stay. The manager thinks it would upset the customers if she had a baby on the premises, so he directs Joseph to the barn where there's a manger. Thanks?
- Joseph begins to go when the manager yells after him to not light any fires; his insurance doesn't cover it.
- Mary has the baby in the manger. It's a boy, and Mary says that she would like to name him Jesus.
- But Joseph is looking down at the two of them and not smiling. Mary asks him what's wrong, and Joseph answers that there's a shine around the head of the baby. Mary answers that all newborns must have it, but Joseph says that the shine is around Mary's head, too.
- Meanwhile, out in the hills, a shepherd is trying to sleep when suddenly, he's woken up by blazing starlight. He sees a star low and nearby. Then, up the road, he sees three camels with riders, and judges them to be well-to-do out-of-staters.
- Suddenly, the shepherd hears music, and the air is filled with angels singing about a baby born in Bethlehem who will be the savior of the world. They repeat that there will be peace on earth and good will toward men. The shepherd knows that it is a miracle, so he gets down on his knees and prays.
- Scene cut to Rome. A man is asleep in a palace and stirs. He's having a nervous dream.
- Back in Bethlehem, Mary is uneasy despite (or because of) the angels singing and the visitors bringing gifts. She hugs the baby closer, and her eyes are filled with pain and fear.