The story of a ten-year-old girl who got a real hippopotamus for Christmas

Forget Holly Jolly

My dentist is somewhere in her thirties, expecting her third child. I recently had a crown replaced and was forced to listen to boring Christmas songs while she drilled out the old porcelain crown. Between swishing and holding my mouth open, I told her it’s a shame “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” isn’t ‘played more often.

She had never heard of the song! This makes me sad. As the Big Lebowski would say, “This cannot stand, man.”

The Story of Gayla Peevey and Mathilda the hippo

“I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” is a holiday classic highlighting the wishful childhood dreams of a Christmas fantasy, but did you know the young singer actually got her wish?

The lyrics were written by John Rox and song was recorded in 1953 by Gayla Peevey, a ten-year-old from Oklahoma City. Her youthful voice breathed life into the imaginative lyrics, pushing the song to number 24 on the Billboard Magazine’s pop chart. Gayla even secured a spot singing on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Of course, the song was a smash hit in Oklahoma. The city zoo started a Gayla Peevey hippo fund so she could be presented with a real hippopotamus on Christmas. Children sent in nickels and dimes, their parents wrote checks, and the zoo raised $3,000 (equivalent to about $34,000 now) for an actual living breathing hippopotamus. Mathilda, a 700-pound baby, arrived from New York on Christmas Eve and Gayla greeted her at the airport. As planned, Gayla donated Mathilda to the Oklahoma City Zoo. The hippopotamus lived for nearly 50 years.

A most unconventional wish

What I love about the song is the girl doesn’t want dinky tinker toys or a doll, not even a pony. Why not go big? She asks for a wildly inappropriate gift. A hippopotamus. Yet clearly, she has thought this fanciful request through in a way only a child can do:

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

She dismisses Mom’s warning that a hippo would eat her up. After all, her teacher says a hippo is a vegetarian. Plus, she is considerate in her ask: “I don’t think Santa Claus will mind, do you?” because he wouldn’t have to use a dirty chimney flu– just bring him through the front door. What could be easier?

Her innocence shines as she imagines creeping down the stairs on a frosty Christmas morning:

Oh what joy and what surprise
When I open up my eyes
To see a hippo hero standing there

A hippo hero.

I return to my dentist in January to have the permanent crown placed. She gave me her cell phone number in case I have any issues with pain before then, and I’m tempted to send her a link to the song. I think that would be overstepping. I’ll just play “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” for her when I see her.

Lyrics by John Rox

“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 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
A 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 a hippo hero standing there

I want a hippopotamus for Christmas
And only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles
No rhinoceroses
I only like hippopotamuses
And hippopotamuses like me too

Mom says a hippo would eat me up but then
My 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 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
And only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles
Or rhinoceroses-es
I only like hippopotamuses-es
And hippopotamuses like me too.

___________

Thank you for visiting.
Linda K. Sienkiewicz is a writer, poet, and artist
Books: In the Context of Love | Gordy and the Ghost Crab | Sleepwalker
New novel,  Love and Other Incurable Ailments, coming fall 2026 from Regal House Publishing
Connect with Linda on social media: LinkTree