$ cat example.py import json class JSONObject: def __init__(self, dict): vars(self).update(dict) # this is valid json string data = '{"channel":{"lastBuild":"2013-11-12", "component":["test1", "test2"]}}' jsonobject = json.loads(data, object_hook=JSONObject) print(jsonobject.channel.component[0]) print(jsonobject.channel.lastBuild) $ python example.py test1 2013-11-12