A Child's Christmas in Wales performed by Jim Miller - December 6th

A Wisconsin Christmas tradition returns as Jim Miller brings his solo performance of Dylan Thomas' beloved holiday story A Child's Christmas in Wales to the Family Learning Center in Menomonie.

The retired theatre professor and actor first performed his 30 minute solo rendition of the short story locally in 1990 and for many in the area attending the annual recitation of Thomas’ classic memoir became an essential part of their own seasonal celebration. With only a few props and simple set pieces, Miller gives voice to the author’s recollection of a 1920's boyhood spent in Swansea, Wales "in those years around the sea-town corner now, and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep." The poet remembers Christmas as a time of ice cakes and blazing pudding, postmen and snowmen, caroling at strange dark doors and snowballing the neighborhood cats. "There are always uncles at Christmas," he recalls, as well as an increasingly inebriated aunt, useless and useful presents, and occasionally a parlor full of firemen.

Poignant but never grossly sentimental, seasonal yet secular, A Child's Christmas in Wales is an ideal Christmas event for all ages, and as always there is every possibility that candy may be thrown from the stage.

Free admission but please bring a food or cash donation for the Stepping Stones food pantry.

From the Facebook event page.