Use a parser

$var='<x><year>2010<day>5</day></year><month>January</month> <day>31</
+day>, <year>2010</year></x>';

use Data::Dumper;
use XML::Simple;
die Dumper( XMLin( $var ) );
__END__
$VAR1 = {
          'month' => 'January',
          'content' => ', ',
          'day' => '31',
          'year' => [
                    {
                      'day' => '5',
                      'content' => '2010'
                    },
                    '2010'
                  ]
        };
[download]