> Folk Music > Songs > I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

[ Roud - ; John Rox, 1953]

Jon Boden sang I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas in 2023 on his and Eliza Carthy’s Hudson album Glad Christmas Comes. Jon Boden noted:

This is a hard hitting protest song that deconstructs the commercialisation of Christmas and critiques the subjugation of the natural world to the whims of bourgeois consumerism.

Eliza hated it until I locked her in a room for several days, playing it through the wall on a big PA on repeat until she gave in.

P.S. Apparently hippos can run really fast.

Lyrics

Jon Boden sings I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
Only a hippopotamus will do
I don’t want a doll, no dinky Tinkertoy
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 no 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 nice 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, or 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 vegetarian
There’s lots of room for him in our two car garage
I’d feed him there and bathe him there
And give him his massage

I can see me now on Christmas morning
Creeping down the stairs
Oh, what nice 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, or rhinoceroses
I only like hippopotamuses
And hippopotamuses like me too