A Child's Christmas in Wales

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This record is featured in “National Educational Television.”
Program
A Child's Christmas in Wales
Producing Organization
Margin Productions Ltd.
Contributing Organization
Northwest Public Broadcasting (Pullman, Washington)
Thirteen WNET (New York, New York)
New Jersey Network (Trenton, New Jersey)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/75-33rv18hc
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Description
Program Description
Christmas is a time when the heart is warmed by the glow of fantasy and nostalgia. This spirit is caught in works like Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and Clement Moore's "A Visit From St. Nicholas." And now, fast establishing itself among the Christmas classics is "A Child's Christmas in Wale" by the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. In this special National Education Television presentation, "A Child's Christmas" is read by the poet himself in a recording made before his death. The reading is accompanied by a still photo animation film created by Marvin Lichtner, with a background of original music by Don Heckman. While much of the poetry and prose of Dylan Thomas is, at a first reading, obscure, there is certainly nothing difficult about "A Child's Christmas in Wales." The words of this poetic memoir, though rich and in the magic of imagery, are immediately clear and meaningful. Christmas is seen through the eyes and the unique perceptions of the very young. There is the joy of looking out on a newly-fallen blanket of snow. There are the presents, and the house full of people, and the special dinner of turkey, blazing pudding, and Welsh delicacies. And there are the colorful aunts, singing and sipping elderberry wine, and the story-telling uncles, drawing majestically on their holiday cigars and then dozing off in overstuffed chairs. It is a glorious, once-a-year day - happy because it is so full of good things, sad because it is so fleeting. It is not easy to illustrate a work like this with photographs, but Marvin Lichtner has met the challenge with outstanding success. The Welsh faces and scenes (photographed in Wales during a five-week period in the Christmas season) were obviously taken with a deep feeling for the Thomas piece. And the careful use of animation and panning techniques gives the poetic rhythm of the reading. Mr. Lichtner, a freelance photographer whose work has been seen in such magazines as Life and Esquire, is especially happy when he is contributing his talent to still photo animation films for television. His "Tribute to Robert Frost," produced by CBS in 1961, National Educational Television's "A Child's Christmas in Wales," and another forthcoming Christmas program on CBS, "A Danish Fairy Tale" (about Hans Christian Andersen), are three of his adventures in the television medium. Dylan Thomas, one of this century's most gifted and colorful poets, was born in Wales in 1914 and died thirty-nine years later in November of 1953. By the time "A Child's Christmas in Wales" was published (as part of a volume of prose works called Quite Early One Morning) his short life had closed and the literary world was beginning to collect and appraise the remarkably original legacy of the fiery Welshman. Now, ten years later, Thomas remains a favorite subject for biographers and critics. His contributions to literature were many and profound, but perhaps the greatest was the unique skill he manifested in realizing the full emotional possibilities of words and sounds. As his contemporary Stephen Spender said of him, Thomas was "a poet obsessed with words, a linguistic genius ... with a mind filled with echoes of his Welsh Nonconformist religious upbringing and of childhood experiences which made a deep impression on him. His poems have a bardic primitive quality, and at the same time there is superimposed on this an awareness of the discoveries of modern psychology. But, above all, he impresses by his rich use of words and by his ability to write in free yet compelling meters." (Quoted by Louis Untermeyer in Modern British Poetry, New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1950.) A Child's Christmas in Wale was produced in 1963 for National Educational Television by Marvin Lichtner and Margin Productions Ltd. Producer-Director: Marvin Lichtner and Original Music: Don Heckman. The program runs approximately 30 minutes. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Description
Christmas is a time when the heart is warmed by the glow of fantasy and nostalgia. This spirit is caught in works like Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol and Clement Moores A Visit From St. Nicholas. And now, fast establishing itself among the Christmas classics is A Childs Christmas in Wale by the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. In this special National Education Television presentation, A Childs Christmas is read by the poet himself in a recording made before his death. The reading is accompanied by a still photo animation film created by Marvin Lichtner, with a background of original music by Don Heckman. While much of the poetry and prose of Dylan Thomas is, at a first reading, obscure, there is certainly nothing difficult about A Childs Christmas in Wales. The words of this poetic memoir, though rich and in the magic of imagery, are immediately clear and meaningful. Christmas is seen through the eyes and the unique perceptions of the very young. There is the joy of looking out on a newly-fallen blanket of snow. There are the presents, and the house full of people, and the special dinner of turkey, blazing pudding, and Welsh delicacies. And there are the colorful aunts, singing and sipping elderberry wine, and the story-telling uncles, drawing majestically on their holiday cigars and then dozing off in overstuffed chairs. It is a glorious, once-a-year day happy because it is so full of good things, sad because it is so fleeting. It is not easy to illustrate a work like this with photographs, but Marvin Lichter has met the challenge with outstanding success. The Welsh faces and scenes (photographed in Wales during a five-week period in the Christmas season) were obviously taken with a deep feeling for the Thomas piece. And the careful use of animation and panning techniques gives the poetic rhythm of the reading.
Broadcast Date
1963-12-01
Asset type
Episode
Genres
Special
Performance
Topics
Literature
Holiday
Media type
Moving Image
Credits
Composer: Heckman, Donald
Director: Lichtner, Marvin, 1930-
Producer: Lichtner, Marvin, 1930-
Producing Organization: Margin Productions Ltd.
AAPB Contributor Holdings
KWSU/KTNW (Northwest Public Television)
Identifier: L069 (Northwest Public Television)
Format: Film
Generation: Original
Duration: 00:25:50
Thirteen - New York Public Media (WNET)
Identifier: wnet_aacip_1894 (WNET Archive)
Format: 16mm film
Duration: 00:25:50?
Thirteen - New York Public Media (WNET)
Identifier: wnet_aacip_1895 (WNET Archive)
Format: 16mm film
Duration: 00:25:50?
New Jersey Network
Identifier: 11-57082 (NJN ID)
Format: U-matic
Duration: 0:20:00?
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
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Citations
Chicago: “A Child's Christmas in Wales,” 1963-12-01, Northwest Public Broadcasting, Thirteen WNET, New Jersey Network, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed May 19, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-33rv18hc.
MLA: “A Child's Christmas in Wales.” 1963-12-01. Northwest Public Broadcasting, Thirteen WNET, New Jersey Network, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. May 19, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-33rv18hc>.
APA: A Child's Christmas in Wales. Boston, MA: Northwest Public Broadcasting, Thirteen WNET, New Jersey Network, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-75-33rv18hc