4. I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas Gayla Peevey
'I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas' was released in 1953 and performed by ten-year-old Gayla Peevey, am Oklahoma local who found herself roped into a fundraising campaign on the back of the song's local success. Despite being an unusual Christmas request, a local promoter started a campaign to raise money to buy Peevey a real hippopotamus, and she was presented with a baby hippo named Mathilda on Christmas Eve, which she then donated to the city zoo.