On this Boxing Day, we give you ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’

Christmas is a time of tradition and traditions. Some fall by the wayside over the years, others stand the test of time.

This picture, dated 1949, shows the late Welsh poet Dylan Thomas at Southampton on his return from a lecture tour in the United States. (AP Photo)

One of the enduring traditions is Dylan Thomas’s lovely prose work “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.”

Thomas first read it on the the BBC in 1952. Less than a year later, he was dead at 39.

Paradoxically, the piece is a romanticised version of Christmases past, of a nostalgic and simpler time from the point of view of a young child.

David Calderisi (courtesy: David Calderisi)

Prior to the demise of our short-wave broadcasts in June 2012, RCI had a Christmas tradition that always left everyone in a terrific mood: renowned Canadian actor David Calderisi joined us to share his passion for the rhythm and meaning of words, both in prose and poetry.

We rekindled that tradition in 2014 as Calderisi rejoined the RCI family, his presence becoming something of a tradition itself.

So in that tradition: on this Boxing Day, from 2015, we invite you–once again–to share in David Calderisi’s reading of Dylan Thomas’s “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.”