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“I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. “

Ok, now, that one makes me cry. Sorry. My second son at age 4 did a Christmas show with his baby gymnastics class and they did a little “dance routine” to that song. Not a single kid was doing it “properly” and the coaches were in front acting it out for them. They were so dang adorable and I was full of pregnancy hormones and cried while watching. And now 14 years later I still get misty eyed thinking of those adorable little ones. Yes, I cry to “I Want a Hippopotamus” and I enjoy it.

I can see that. I heard it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised to find out it has been around since the 1950’s. I just didn’t have the positive connection that you do. I was in a hardware store, and it just didn’t have the warm and cozy familiarity of Nature King Cole singing “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...” I have heard it a few times since then, and I can see it eventually growing on me, because I generally like silliness, as opposed to genuinely bad and annoying stuff such as the multiple versions of “Last Christmas I Gave You My Heart.”

By the way, before I came on this thread, I had just watched the “Dirty Jobs” in which Mike Rowe had to clean out a hippopotamus habitat at a zoo. Show that to any kid who wants a hippopotamus and I guarantee they will change their minds!