I still remember the resonance of his voice, and even a few of the phrases.’ This didn’t happen once, it was part of her tradition, and we would sit around and listen. I have a clear memory of her putting the record of Dylan Thomas reading A Child’s Christmas in Wales on the record player on Christmas Eve. ‘We often spent Christmases with my Aunty Mar in California, and would travel down from Canada for the season. And when it wasn’t broadcast, it was played on the record player, as Dylan Thomas fan Shawn Mooney recollects: This classic recording of Dylan’s sonorous voice is still played on radio stations across the world, bringing it into the living rooms of families everywhere. When we asked our visitors at the Centre about their own memories of A Child’s Christmas in Wales, we were most struck by the number of Americans and Canadians that had clear memories of Dylan’s recording from 1952. Swansea readers and listeners will recognise the ‘rim of the carol-singing sea’ that is Swansea bay, and know that the ‘lights in the windows of all the other houses on our hill’ can be found on Cwmdonkin Drive but what does an international audience make of the ‘moccasined trappers from Hudson Bay, off Mumbles Road’? Or the childish pastime of chasing away ‘the English and the bears?’ Written originally as a piece for BBC Radio, and recorded in 1952 for the now-famous label, Caedmon Records, what is most surprising about this piece is its global appeal. ‘I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six night when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six.’
The easiest way to get into the Hollywood-style imagery of a white Christmas, is to open up the pages of Dylan’s dreamlike short story, A Child’s Christmas in Wales, and start reading aloud: I’m finding it hard to remember the last time that Swansea felt snow in December, but no matter. December, in my memory, was as white as Lapland, though there were no reindeers.’ The Dylan Thomas Centre’s Charlotte Rogers considers the universal appeal of Dylan’s magical story.
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