This morning proved to be quite the entertaining car ride for Lily and me. I usually have the radio on, in the hopes that Lil will enjoy the music and it helps pass the time, especially if she happens to be a bit fussy. Today the station was taking requests for holiday music, and wouldn’t you know it, someone requested the Christmas classic, I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas. I’ll admit, this was a song I don’t recall having heard before; but it has a fun, catch jingle to it. And Lily loved it. As the song played, I looked back in the mirror and saw Lily, almost violently swaying from side to side (almost slamming side to side), and clapping her hands wildly. No doubt she loved this song. The next thing I know, my head is swaying side to side, which only encouraged Lily to dance harder. By the time we arrived to daycare we were both laughing and giggling and a bit sore in the neck.
I thought it’d be appropreate to share this fun song with you, so sit back and enjoy the Christmas classic, I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas.
For you history buffs out there, he is some information I found out about the song.
A children’s favorite, “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” features words and music by John Rax and was originally performed in 1953 by Gayle Peevey. Peevey, besides recording ”Hippo” and its flip side, ”Are my Ears on Straight?”, also recorded several other novelty songs, including ”Angel in a Christmas Play”, ”Got a Cold in my Node for Christmas”, and others. At the time of its release, the “Hippo” song was used by the Oklahoma City Zoo to raise nickels and dimes from youngsters to bring a new hippopotamus to the zoo. The public relations ploy worked and the zoo soon got a hippo who they named Matilda.
To download a copy for yourself, check out this site.
iamRYNO 
Cute
I found out about this song around this time last year from a co-workers. Everyone got annoyed with it around the 5th time I played it. Glad Lily shares my love of good music. 🙂
ok. i know you did not know this but this the THE song every year that i cannot get out of my head. matter of fact, there are people in the church that will sing this song as they pass me by (even in the summer months) and sing this song. why, just to watch me sing it for the rest of the day. this has been going on for years now. do i like the song. . . .YES! do i like singing it all the time . . .i will not lie . . . it’s so much fun to sing.
Dang it, Ryan!
I just listened to that and now I’ve got to go to a meeting and explain why I’m crying so.
Ryan,
Amy and I love this song! We sing it all of the time ever since high school!!!! It obviously shows that you did ignore us when we were in youth if you could not recall hearing this song before, or that we are getting old and its been a really long time since we were in youth. 🙂 jk. I am glad Lily likes it because it is an essential song to know, especially around Christmas time!