What Joy and What Surprise
by
CS and I joined another couple and we took our kids to see Celebration in the Oaks recently. We walked through the Cajun Night Before Christmas and then went to the Christmas carols laser show. I’d always skipped these two things in the past but allowed my friends to guide us as though we were tourists.
At the laser show, a silly light show danced to classic Christmas carols. Then this one song started to play that just grabbed me. I immediately loved it. I started to think how it could be that I’d never heard this song before. It had that quickly become my favorite Christmas song. Last year, my favorite Christmas song was “We Need a Little Christmas,” and I still love that song, but that was so last year!
The wife of the couple we were with turned to me and said, “Isn’t this the best Christmas song ever?” I was stunned that she was thinking what I was thinking. I responded, “I’ve never heard it before, but I really like it. Who sings it?” She said, “I’ve never heard it either, but I love it. I don’t know who sings it either.”
We continued on our walking tour of Celebration in the Oaks. And that song stayed in my head. Days passed, still there. So the hubs downloaded it for me and I listen to it on my iPod every day. And I catch the hubs listening to it, too. Damn song is contagious.
So what song is it? It’s “I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas” by Gayla Peevey. It’s from 1953. It’s been around since before I was born. You can go to YouTube and listen to it here. But be careful! You just might fall in love with it too and need to hear it every day!
Hey, we heard that song with Owl last year when we took him to the Oaks. It was the first time I had seen the laser show and the Cajun Night Before Christmas, too. I thought the hippo song had been written especilaty for the show. I do remember it though. So thrilled it’s available online!