Last year I put up a 45-rpm Christmas record from my childhood, “Santa and the Doodle-li-boop,” and here’s another one we always enjoyed.

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas mp4

Researching it on Wikipedia today I learned this was a cover version, not the original, but it’s the only one I’d ever heard. You can hear and read more about the first version, and how it really did result in a live hippopotamus at this site.