Favourite Christmas songs for kids

Celebrate Christmas with some fun tunes! Pop on our playlist of favourite Christmas songs while wrapping presents, writing cards, or just hanging out with the whānau on Christmas Day.

Please note that lyrics may vary with different renditions.

1. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer
2. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
3. I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
4. All I Want for Christmas
5. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
6. Frosty the Snowman
7. Jingle Bells
8. White Christmas

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
had a very shiny nose,
and if you ever saw it,
you would even say it glowed.

All of the other reindeer,
used to laugh and call him names.
They never let poor Rudolph,
join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve,
Santa came to say:
“Rudolph with your nose so bright,
won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”

Then all the reindeer loved him,
as they shouted out with glee:
“Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
you’ll go down in history!”

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Good tidings we bring to you and your kin;
Good tidings for Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding;
Oh, bring us a figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer.
We won’t go until we get some;
We won’t go until we get some;
We won’t go until we get some, so bring some right here.

We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas;
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas

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

Mom says the hippo would eat me up, but then
Teacher says a hippo is a vegeterian

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
Only a hippopotamus will do
No crocodiles or rhinoceroseses
I only like hippopotamuseses
And hippopotamuses like me too!

All I Want for Christmas

Everybody stops and stares at me
These two teeth are gone as you can see
I don’t know just who to blame for this catastrophe!
But my one wish on Christmas Eve is as plain as it can be!

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth,
my two front teeth,
see my two front teeth!
Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth,
then I could wish you, “Merry Christmas.”

It seems so long since I could say,
“Sister Susie sitting on a thistle!”
Gosh oh gee, how happy I’d be, if I could only whistle

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth,
my two front teeth,
see my two front teeth.
Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth,
then I could wish you, “Merry Christmas.”

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He’s making a list
And checking it twice;
Gonna find out who’s naughty and nice
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake
He knows if you’ve been bad or good
So be good for goodness sake!
Oh! You better watch out!
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

Frosty the Snowman

Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul
With a corncob pipe and a button nose
and two eyes made out of coal
Frosty the snowman is a fairy tale they say
He was made of snow but the children
know how he came to life one day
There must have been some magic in that
old silk hat they found
For when they placed it on his head
he began to dance around
Oh, Frosty the snowman
was alive as he could be
And the children say he could laugh
and play just the same as you and me

[Chorus] “Thumpety thump thump
thumpety thump thump
Look at Frosty go
Thumpety thump thump
thumpety thump thump
Over the hills of snow.

Frosty the snowman
knew the sun was hot that day
So he said, “Let’s run and we’ll have some fun
now before I melt away”
Down to the village
with a broomstick in his hand
Running here and there all around the square
saying, “Catch me if you can!”
He led them down the streets of town
right to the traffic cop
And he only paused a moment when
he heard him holler “Stop!”
For Frosty the snowman
had to hurry on his way
But he waved goodbye saying
“Don’t you cry, I’ll be back again some day”

[Chorus]

Jingle Bells

Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh
Through the fields we go
Laughing all the way.
Bells on bob-tail ring
Making spirits bright
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight.

Chorus: Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh, O
Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way,
Oh what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.

A day or two ago
I thought I’d take a ride
And soon Miss Fanny Bright
Was seated by my side;
The horse was lean and lank
Misfortune seemed his lot,
We ran into a drifted bank
And there we got upsot.

A day or two ago
The story I must tell
I went out on the snow
And on my back I fell;
A gent was riding by
In a one-horse open sleigh
He laughed at me as
I there sprawling laid
But quickly drove away.

Now the ground is white,
Go it while you’re young,
Take the girls along
And sing this sleighing song.
Just bet a bob-tailed bay,
Two-forty as his speed,
Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! You’ll take the lead.