"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" is a Christmas novelty song written by John Rox and performed by 10-year-old Gayla Peevey in 1953. The song peaked at number 24 on Billboard magazine's pop chart in December 1953.
"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" was released by Columbia Records, with the B-side of the original record featuring "Are My Ears on Straight?". Upon its national release, the song shot to the top of the charts. Peevey performed the song on the November 13, 1953, episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, which had been recorded earlier in October.
A popular legend holds that the 1953 hit had been recorded as a fundraiser to bring the city zoo a hippopotamus, but in a 2007 radio interview with Detroit-based WNIC radio station, Peevey clarified that the song was not originally recorded as a fundraiser. Instead, the Oklahoma City Zoo (located in Peevey's birthplace of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) and a local newspaper, picking up on the popularity of the song and Peevey's local roots, launched the Gayla Peevey hippo fund so Peevey could be presented with an actual hippopotamus on Christmas. The campaign succeeded, and Peevey was presented with an actual hippopotamus, whichâÂÂas had been planned all alongâÂÂshe donated to the city zoo. The hippopotamus, named Mathilda, lived for nearly 50 years. In 2017, Peevey, then 73 years old, was again present when the Oklahoma City Zoo acquired a rare pygmy hippopotamus from the San Diego Zoo.
In a 2010 interview, Peevey said that she had never received any royalties from the song. However, in 2016 she discovered that there was an account under her name with Sony Music from which she could claim royalties and she was also getting revenue for the song through iTunes.