I used to ask for things for Christmas that I knew I wasn’t going to get, I did it because I didn’t really care what I got. Like I said I was a weird and creepy kid and I had zero idea about what kids liked or what the popular toys were.
In dog behavior lingo, I didn’t know how to ‘kid’.
I don’t know how this song escaped me because my family liked novelty songs like this one. All I can assume is, they kept it from me on purpose for fear I’d spend the months leading up to Christmas asking for…
A Hippopotamus.
I’d have done it and I would have looked at my pile of presents on Christmas morning and put on my brave soldier face as I obviously forced myself to be enthusiastic over a pile of gifts that were probably pretty cool.
Here it is, probably the best Christmas song ever.
So sorry I never had the chance to use ya.
amm
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas Only a hippopotamus will do Don’t want a doll, no dinky tinker Toy I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas I don’t think Santa Claus will mind, do you? He won’t have to use our dirty chimney flue Just bring him through the front door, that’s the easy thing to do
I can see me now on Christmas morning, creeping down the stairs Oh what joy and what surprise when I open up my eyes To see my hippo hero standing there
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas Only a hippopotamus will do No crocodiles, no rhinoceroses I only like hippopotamuses And hippopotamuses like me too
Mom says the hippo would eat me up, but then Teacher says a hippo is a vegeterian
There’s lots of room for him in our two-car garage I’d feed him there and wash him there and give him his massage I can see me now on Christmas morning, creeping down the stairs Oh what joy and what surprise when I open up my eyes To see a hippo hero standing there
I want a hippopotamus for Christmas Only a hippopotamus will do No crocodiles or rhinoceroseses I only like hippopotamuseses And hippopotamuses like me too! They like me too!
The two figures, protected against the bone chilling cold in long dark red woolen hooded jackets trimmed in fluffs of white and gray fur, were drifting through the snowy woods in the cold still air of the newly arrived winter.
One figure said to the other, ” Just think of this: something could follow you through the snow, it could follow your tracks and bide it’s time before overtaking you. It wouldn’t matter if you screamed for help. Nobody is out here on a day when the air is so cold that it will burn it’s way through your mouth and nose and set your lungs on fire.”
The figures stopped and looked at each other. One figure put out a black gloved hand and pushed at the other figure’s shoulder.
A sound passed between them, it was the sound of a brook rushing it’s way downstream during a rain storm.
It was laughter.
The figures turned and looked at the path behind them- there were no footprints, there were no tracks in the snow. There should have been puffs of their frozen breath hanging in the air, but there wasn’t.
” How long has it been since we’ve taken a breath or left our own tracks in the snow?” one figure asked the other.
” I’m not sure that we ever have.” the second figure answered.
The two figures turned back to their path and glided along it without a care in the world.
Winter had arrived and with it came short bright days and woven through it were dark gray heavy threads that stitched the darkness and all of the creatures that live inside of it, to the light as tight as muscle is attached to bone.
