Histrionic tot an hour after midnight, how Christmas starts (8)
I believe the answer is:
dramatic
'histrionic' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'tot an hour after midnight how christmas starts' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'tot' could be 'dram' (both can mean an alcoholic drink) and 'dram' is located in the answer.
'an' could be 'i' (Roman numeral for one) and 'i' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dramatic that I've seen before include "Sensational, thrilling" , "Relating to theatre and acting" , "Sudden and striking" , "Thrilling in effect" , "Substantial" .)