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A Child's Christmas in Wales
by
Dylan Thomas
For almost half a century, Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales has entranced both young and old and has become a familiar part of the holiday-season landscape. With lovely poetic lilt, this simple tale captures the child's eye-view and an adult's warm remembrance of the time of presents, good things to eat, and, in the best of circumstances, newly-fallen snow.
Hardcover, 48 pages
Published
September 30th 2006
by Orion Children's Books (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
(first published 1952)
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The tiny, blue paperback version of Thomas' prose poem is adorned with minimalist, pattern-based woodcuts and published by New Directions. It is less than eight pages of solid text and is dense and desultory enough to warrant multiple back to back readings. The rapidly changing focus of the narrator is caused by his efforts to reach into a grab bag of distant childhood memories and his willingness to mix events together that may have been separated by several years. The boyhood is ultimately wel...more
This is not a poem, but it is written so well that the language approaches poetry. I first learned of this in the early 1990's in the form of a video on PBS. My uncle recorded it, and it became a Christmas tradition to watch this with my kids. We practically have it memorized and all have our favorite lines. We now watch it on DVD. The video version incorporates all of the text from the book, but adds some material to give it a bit more context. Being familiar with the video version first,...more
This was a Christmas tradition- to read aloud- at the Gonzaga Honors Program christmas party. I keep this tradition, reading it every Christmas to my own children. Thomas has captured the concept of what memory is, how it unrolls, and how emotional memory can be so poignant that the same temperature (such as the cold snow in his work), the smells, the feelings, the taste of that memory can be pulled out and unrolled. The predominant image in this work is of a snowball, and Thomas gives us that i...more
This may have been my introduction to Dylan Thomas. I may have first experienced it in the iconic Caedmon recording with Thomas, in his wonderful and too-often imitated BBC "Welsh-singing voice", reading the tale of this one Christmas that was so much like the others so many years before. Of course I first experienced it on the record. But I read it soon after. Very soon after. Soon after that I began reading it aloud to my friends at Christmas or any other time they'd listen to m...more
My grandfather used to read this story every Christmas at a community event in his town. We'd go see him read it every year, and there was one line in the story- "Mr. Daniel looks like a spaniel", and every time he read it, I would burst into giggles (no matter how old I was, I thought that was damn funny), and he knew that was my favorite line in the book, so he'd look directly at me every time he read it. He passed away thirteen years ago, and I bought a copy of this book a few years...more
Who does not love boozy, bleary-eyed Dylan Thomas' childhood Christmas remembrance? Anyone who has heard Thomas read this or any other poem aloud will hear his voice reverberating in their mind. This book is a tiny treasure, and a special seasonal treat.
I checked this out from the library expecting a child's story but curious about what Dylan Thomas would do with it. What I found when I opened the pages was not a child's story, but sweeping prose, weaving a picture of a Christmas in Thomas' childhood (whether at twelve or six, we never know which). The words conveyed as much through their melodic composition as through their meaning.
The edition I read was illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg. The wood engravings were amazing, requiring as...more
The edition I read was illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg. The wood engravings were amazing, requiring as...more
I was hoping that this would be my new favorite story for Christmas, adding to my love for Wales.
What is wrong with me?! I need someone to explain why this book is so highly rated. After two readings I have yet to make sense of it. The illustrations are sweet, but the story is rambling and difficult.
I also bought the audio, which I thought might help, but as yet has only made me fall asleep. (It might have something to do with my exhaustion in preparing for Christmas)....more
What is wrong with me?! I need someone to explain why this book is so highly rated. After two readings I have yet to make sense of it. The illustrations are sweet, but the story is rambling and difficult.
I also bought the audio, which I thought might help, but as yet has only made me fall asleep. (It might have something to do with my exhaustion in preparing for Christmas)....more
Lyrical account of Dylan Thomas' reminiscences of his childhood in Wales. His poetic slant is felt throughout the prose that does not feel disconnected, even though it could with the memories flitting about. What does comes through is a child's mind with a short attention span and the innocence of the noted details. The categorizing of useless and useful presents are a child's as are the descriptions of the family and animals. The description of snow is makes me feel warm and I want it to snow t...more
It's a new Christmas tradition of mine to read this lovely memoir/essay. Not a long book, nor a poem; more of a short, conversational story of what Christmas was like for Dylan Thomas in Wales in the 1920s-1930s. It's beautifully written, of course--it's Dylan Thomas, after all--and has a warm but not sappy, universal feel to it. It's delightful to read this in one sitting a few days before Christmas and revel in a time when the world was a bit quieter and even stopped for a day to allow familie...more
Trina Schart Hyman's sensitive illustrations really bring Dylan Thomas's text to life; in at least one instance, they provided me some necessary explanation. (What the heck is a child's nosebag? And how does one knit one?) The lyrical-brutal-magical memories Thomas chooses to relate come from several childhood Christmases and two distinct pieces of writing but blend together to form a harmonious whole--maybe because each memory is adorned with one or two telling details and related in Thomas's s...more
I requested this book from the Tulsa Library a few days before Christmas. It finally came in February. Christmas has passed, but the story is timeless. You can easily read it in 15 minutes. At one time I had a recording of Dylan Thomas reading his story. I probably still have the LP, but LPs have now gone the way of the eight-track cassette player.
I used to listen to it each Christmas, but it has been several Christmases since I last heard it read. It is a delightful story --...more
I used to listen to it each Christmas, but it has been several Christmases since I last heard it read. It is a delightful story --...more
Erik Graff
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Xmas celebrators of childhood
Recommended to Erik by:
Einar Graff Jr.
Shelves:
poetry
Long, long before I read Dylan Thomas, he read to me. It started at Christmas. Which I cannot recall, nor can I recall a childhood Christmas without him, sonorously, excitedly, rhapsodically evoking his own experience of the holy day and thereby formulating a bit of my own.
The recordings of Thomas, this and his Under Milkwood, came to my family, care of WFMT, Chicago's fine arts station, my father's companion from Sousa marches in the morning to a concluding nocturne sixteen hours ...more
The recordings of Thomas, this and his Under Milkwood, came to my family, care of WFMT, Chicago's fine arts station, my father's companion from Sousa marches in the morning to a concluding nocturne sixteen hours ...more
The 1985 Holiday House of A Child's Christmas in Wales is the version that remains on my shelf of Christmas books. My favorite was a tiny blue book filled with woodcuts - it must have been given away as a gift - no matter.
From the beginning to the end one is captivated by Dylan Thomas' childhood Christmas which brings to mind one's own memories of Christmas past. Reading is pleasurable, but this is one story that is greatly enhanced by listening to Dylan Thomas himself as he tells ab...more
From the beginning to the end one is captivated by Dylan Thomas' childhood Christmas which brings to mind one's own memories of Christmas past. Reading is pleasurable, but this is one story that is greatly enhanced by listening to Dylan Thomas himself as he tells ab...more
My mum gave me this last year but I've only just got around to reading it, but it's perfect timing. Dylan Thomas is one of my very favourite poets, and his Christmas memories have the perfect combination lyrical beauty and childish wonder he was famous for! I feel well festive now, although could it really have snowed as often as he recalls - I've lived in Swansea and all it did was rain during the winter.
"All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street...."
If poets were pastry chefs, then Dylan Thomas's tastiest confection could be A Child's Christmas in Wales, whose sweetness is tempered and made all the more delicious by a tincture of melancholy.
This edition from New Directions with charming woodcuts by Ellen Raskin. I don't know if it's for kids, but it is very short.
If poets were pastry chefs, then Dylan Thomas's tastiest confection could be A Child's Christmas in Wales, whose sweetness is tempered and made all the more delicious by a tincture of melancholy.
This edition from New Directions with charming woodcuts by Ellen Raskin. I don't know if it's for kids, but it is very short.
Vinegar Thomasina
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
truly anyone
Shelves:
youth
The classic story of a mischievous Welsh boy's Christmas memories. A clever, witty, and festive alternative to the more religious and/or fantastical (i.e. Santa Klaus) traditional holiday stories. I grew up having this story read to me every year and was pleased to read it again as an adult and find the story is just as rewarding as when I was a child. This edition is beautifully illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman. Highly recommended.
Pure joy, for the illustrations, the story, and most of all the language. "Years and years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales, and birds the color of red-flannel petticoats whisked past the harp-shaped hills . . . before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced horse . . .
My other favorite such Christmas book is Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory, but that one always makes me cry.
My other favorite such Christmas book is Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory, but that one always makes me cry.
With all the hustle and bustle of the season, the shopping and shoving and sometimes shovelling, A Child's Christmas in Wales is like a little oasis of calm and quiet. 'Quiet' being a relative term: I read it annually, and every time I can hear Dylan Thomas' voice speaking the words to me from the page, his sonorous, lilting, rolling Welsh voice.
The illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman in this edition are delightful.
The illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman in this edition are delightful.
Krista the Krazy Kataloguer
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
read-childrens-books,
read-christmas-stories
Thomas' poetic description of his memories of Christmas in Wales reminded me of Jean Shepherd's movie "A Christmas Story" for its nostalgia and colorful use of language. I especially love this version of the tale because it's illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman, my favorite illustrator, who captures the mood that Thomas describes beautifully. I should have read this around Christmas time. Next year I will!
"This is Dylan Thomas's homage to the Christmases of his boyhood, when the snow was thicker and whiter, when everything about Christmas was better than it is now. (Sound familiar? Ah, the good old days!) It's the sheer acrobatic brilliance of the language here that we most love. This is the most delicious read-aloud for having words trip off the tongue."
— Elizabeth Blumele, Publisher's Weekly
— Elizabeth Blumele, Publisher's Weekly
Kristen
rated it
·
review of another edition
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
everyone
Shelves:
children-young-adult
I enjoyed this little book. It's an anecdotal account of what a child's Christmas would have been like in Wales in the early 20th century. It's primary gift is in it's creation of the cozy atmosphere of the holidays in a simpler time. The best words to describe this book would be "cozy" and "pleasant." Would be a good read-aloud for older kids. I'll probably read this one every year.
This short book, a long poem, really, is wonderful, but the audio version of the work read by Thomas himself is mesmerizing. You feel the snow, you smell the whiskey on his uncle's breath, the wet wool drying before the smoky fire, and hear the sonorous bells of the local church. It should be as much a part of any Christmas tradition as Jimmy Stewart and David Sedaris.
This extended prose poem is a work of art to be enjoyed any time of year. The humor, the sweet memory, the scenery are palpable. I have always loved then ending, the going to bed on Christmas night, when the hubbub is over but the dreaming goes on. Trina Shart Hyman's illustrations in this edition are wonderfully true to the text and full of fun.
Here's a little sample: "...and some few small aunts,
not wanted in the kitchen, nor anywhere else for that
matter, sat on the very edges of their chairs, poised
and brittle, afraid to break, like faded cups and
saucers." Delightful. Recommended.
not wanted in the kitchen, nor anywhere else for that
matter, sat on the very edges of their chairs, poised
and brittle, afraid to break, like faded cups and
saucers." Delightful. Recommended.
I couldn't manage to read this aloud to my daughter - she had to read it to me - the deep resonances from my childhood, of having read it many many times lover, and having listened to Dylan Thomas read it aloud on record - too stirring and deeply moving - lovely eccentric and vibrant prose-poem of memory
Another annual Christmas-time read. This book is lyrical. I enjoy it more each time I read it and keep thinking I want to see if I can find an ancient recording of it being read by the author, if such a thing exists. (Note:I may be a little partial to this poet since he is my hubby's namesake).
I finally read this in its entirety, and immediately wanted to read it over again and hear it read aloud. My usual reading diet is not this poetic, and this style is so suited for childhood memories and their dreamlike, fragmented quality that is more about a feeling than anything.
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If there's anything nicer than finding that one of your favorite illustrators has illustrated one of your favorite pieces of writing, I don't know what it is! Bonus that my mother feels the same about both, and I therefore had someone to give it to for Christmas!
This book is part of such a happy memory: Mr. Fulmer, our beloved 12th grade English teacher, played a recording of Dylan Thomas reading this story on the last day before Christmas break and I fell in love with it! I still read it every year at Christmastime!
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Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet. He is regarded by many as one of the 20th century's most influential poets.
In addition to poetry, Thomas also wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, with the latter frequently performed by Thomas himself. His public readings, particularly in America, won him great acclaim; his booming, at times ostentatious, voice with a subtle Welsh...more
More about Dylan Thomas...
In addition to poetry, Thomas also wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, with the latter frequently performed by Thomas himself. His public readings, particularly in America, won him great acclaim; his booming, at times ostentatious, voice with a subtle Welsh...more
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“And when the firemen turned off the hose and were standing in the wet, smoky room, Jim's Aunt, Miss. Prothero, came downstairs and peered in at them. Jim and I waited, very quietly, to hear what she would say to them. She said the right thing, always. She looked at the three tall firemen in their shining helmets, standing among the smoke and cinders and dissolving snowballs, and she said, "Would you like anything to read?”
—
17 people liked it
“One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.”
—
12 people liked it
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