I want to parse an XML document into the desired format to create data-points for a graph

Here is a sample of what the XML file looks like:

  <observation realtime_start="2014-08-01" realtime_end="2014-08-01" date="1947-01-01" value="1939.5"/>
  <observation realtime_start="2014-08-01" realtime_end="2014-08-01" date="1948-01-01" value="2020.0"/>
  <observation realtime_start="2014-08-01" realtime_end="2014-08-01" date="1949-01-01" value="2009.0"/>
  <observation realtime_start="2014-08-01" realtime_end="2014-08-01" date="1950-01-01" value="2184.0"/>
  <observation realtime_start="2014-08-01" realtime_end="2014-08-01" date="1951-01-01" value="2360.0"/>

I would like to get it into this format:

        { x: new Date(1949, 01, 1), y: 2009.0},
        { x: new Date(1950, 01, 1), y: 2184.0 },
        { x: new Date(1951, 01, 1), y: 2360.0 },

I am using the minidom library for python to parse the xml file using this code:

for item in dataList:
  thefile.write("{ x: new Date(%s)," % item.attributes['date'].value)
  thefile.write(" y: %s}, \n" % item.attributes['value'].value)

This outputs:

{ x: new Date(1967-01-01), y: 334047.409}, 
{ x: new Date(1967-04-01), y: 335653.701},
{ x: new Date(1967-07-01), y: 338440.658},
{ x: new Date(1967-10-01), y: 347027.379},
{ x: new Date(1968-01-01), y: 351784.192},

The problem I have is that the dates are parsed in the format YYYY-MM-DD, and I can't figure out how to change the format in the script.

I am using the canvas.js library to graph if there is a way to change the date formats.