A Child's Christmas in Wales

Dylan Thomas’s compressed and lyrical account of a young lad’s Christmas has always enchanted me, and it continues every time I read it or hear it read. I recommend listening to the author reading it, available on YouTube. It is delightful poetic prose, moving, amusing, and always surprising. I envy his style here and his wit, feeling, and language proficiency. I wish I could write like that.

I read this book aloud every Christmas (my son still lets me) and the rhythms of the language never lose their magic. The writer’s memories of the Christmas Days of his childhood are vividly drawn and have an enduring, innocent appeal. “Years and years ago, when I was a boy, when there were wolves in Wales…” 

Dylan Thomas was one of the rarish writers who succeeded wildly in poem and prose. His stories have the throb and call of great poetry, and are rimed with gemfire. A Child's Christmas in Wales is short in length, but is so bighearted that it deserves an honorable place on my list. I read it aloud. And once you hear its simple magic, you too will find it visiting you every Christmas inside this inscrutable life, like the happy tapping susurrations of jingling silver bells.