Day 13: A Child's Christmas in Wales

"There are always Uncles at Christmas. The same Uncles."

Welsh poet Dylan Thomas first recorded "A Child's Christmas in Wales" for a radio broadcast in 1952. In 1954, the broadcast became a book — and in 1987, the book became a movie. While this hour-long film might not appeal to the masses, it's a seasonal favorite at my house (my mom watches it no less than a dozen times, and that's not an exaggeration). It's a story for anyone that enjoys Victorian-era nostalgia: Gaslights hung with mistletoe, tin soldiers & toy whistles, carols in the front parlor, and words like "slap-dashing."

The poem itself is Dylan Thomas' reflection on Christmastime in a seaside Welsh town. The movie is almost entirely a recitation of the poem, framed as a man regaling his grandson with stories and memories of his childhood Christmases. Fair warning: At times, it's one of those wordy poems — the kind filled with imaginative imagery and beautiful lines, if you have the patience to listen. 

My favorite parts in the poem are about the snow ("Our snow was not only shaken from white wash buckets down the sky, it came shawling out of the ground and swam and drifted out of the arms and hands and bodies of the trees..."), the useful presents ("engulfing mufflers of the old coach days, and mittens made for giant sloths"), the useless presents ("a false nose and a tram-conductor's cap and a machine that punched tickets and rang a bell"), and the uncles.

** Watch this movie in full on youtube!**