A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
"A Child's Christmas in Wales" by Dylan Thomas is a nostalgic narrative that captures the essence of childhood during the Christmas season in Wales. The story opens with a poetic depiction of snow, setting a magical tone that reflects a child's imaginative view of time and memory. It recounts whimsical adventures, such as the narrator and his friend Jim Prothero engaging in playful snowball fights and responding to a neighbor's fire, illustrating the absurdity and charm of childhood experiences. The tale also explores the complexities of Christmas gift-giving, classifying presents into useful and useless categories, thus highlighting a child's perspective on what truly matters. The presence of quirky relatives during family gatherings adds a humorous touch, with unique characters like Auntie Hannah singing in the yard. Through a series of vignettes, the narrative portrays a rich tapestry of holiday activities, from playing in the snow to enjoying music, all wrapped in Thomas's lyrical and evocative language. Celebrated for its poetic style, "A Child's Christmas in Wales" remains a beloved piece of literature that resonates with themes of nostalgia, innocence, and the joy of childhood.
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A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas
First published: 1954
Subjects: Family and friendship
Type of work: Short fiction
Recommended Ages: 10-13
Form and Content
A Child’s Christmas in Wales begins with a mesmerizing reference to snow that seems to symbolize the illusive passage of time. The narrator describes how snow grows from the trees as well as falling from the sky, reminding the reader that the season described by the narrator is not the ordinary one experienced by most people, but a magical one brought to life by the imagination of a child.
The first episode involves the narrator and his friend Jim Prothero throwing snowballs at cats. This escapade of mock heroism is broken off by a faint cry for help from neighbor Mrs. Prothero, whose home is spewing forth smoke, and the narrator and Jim dutifully call the fire department. The firemen promptly arrive and douse the interior of the house with water, thereby ruining the nicely decorated home. Mr. Prothero, who seems not to know how to deal with the crisis, discovers that he has dropped his smoldering pipe in his chair, thereby causing the smoke. The elderly Miss Prothero adds more wry humor to the occasion when she asks the firemen if they would like something to read. The whole situation strikes the little boys as being wonderfully absurd.
The next story focuses on the postman and all the presents that are given at Christmas time. For the narrator, presents can be divided into two categories—the useless and the useful. Useless presents include such items as zebra scarfs and oversized hats, things that are intended to be useful but that are absurdly ill-suited to the comfort and needs of a little boy. Useful presents include items such as a conductor’s cap and ticket machine, a painting book, and Easy Hobbi-Games for Little Engineers, which is like the American Erector Set. Numerous candies are also placed in this category, including candy cigarettes the young narrator uses in an attempt to fool older people into thinking that he is smoking.
Another episode describes the peculiar aunts and uncles who people the narrator’s home during the Christmas season. The common activities of taste-testing new cigars, sampling various drinks, and stuffing oneself with turkey and blazing pudding eventually resolve into nap time for the corpulent uncles, who unbutton their vests and attempt to sleep as the young narrator pops balloons and tries to disturb their heavy snoring. Of special note is Auntie Hannah, whose love for port and singing have led her into the yard. She sings like a big-bosomed thrush, much to the embarrassment of the other ladies in the house.
The last story reviews a variety of activities, such as playing in the snow and singing Christmas carols to the neighbors. The evening concludes with a time for playing the piano and the violin and singing an odd variety of popular songs. Then, the young narrator recounts how he would finally go to his bedroom, listen to the music drifting from other houses, and fall asleep in the “close and holy darkness.”
Critical Context
A Child’s Christmas in Wales belongs to a long tradition of children’s literature written by prominent poets. For example, Christina Rossetti wrote a delightful collection of poems entitled Sing Song (1872), along with a wide variety of other poems for children. T. S. Eliot published Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats in 1939, a collection that was transformed into the popular Broadway musical Cats. Theodore Roethke wrote several fine selections of poems for children, including “Lighter Pieces and Poems for Children” in Words for the Wind (1958), and “Nonsense Poems” in I Am! Says the Lamb (1961). Thomas’ short-story collection is not as fine a piece as these selections of poetry, but A Child’s Christmas in Wales does feature a highly poetic style that sings with the same beauty as many of his lyrical poems and plays, such as Under Milkwood (1954).
Thomas evidences the Welsh love for language. For example, the opening paragraph of the first episode contains this sparkling sentence: “All the Christmases roll down toward the two-tongued sea, like a cold and headlong moon bundling down the sky that was our street; and they stop at the rim of the ice-edged, fish-freezing waves, and I plunge my hands in the snow and bring out whatever I can find.” This is fine writing reminiscent of Old English poetry, with its use of kennings, or compound nouns, such as “whale-road” and “swan’s-path” to rename common things such as the sea. The mesmerizing language of A Child’s Christmas in Wales makes even the most trivial of childish escapades worth hearing again and again. This book continues to be very popular for its portrayal of childhood as well as for its musical language.