Want a hippopotamus for Christmas?

CLEVELAND -- A Cleveland candy maker is helping to turn a corny old Christmas song into a unique gift idea, which will also benefit two charities.

Judy Zamlen-Spotts, of Chesterland, never could stand the song "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas," but she has turned her intense dislike for the 1953 record into something positive.

With her son David, Zamlen-Spotts has teamed with Baker Candies, of Collinwood, to produce chocolate hippopotamuses  for Christmas to benefit charity.

"It's the type of song that, once you hear it, you need electro-shock therapy to get it out of your mind," says Zamlen-Spotts, her face turning to the same grimace it displays every time she thinks of the novelty song.

Today, Baker Candies is turning out hundreds of seven-ounce chocolate hippos, in the hope they will become unusual holiday gifts, while helping those in need.

"It's something different and something you can donate to, but still get something in return," says David Spotts, a junior economics major at DePauw University in Indiana.

"Because everybody likes chocolate, and it's a great stocking stuffer."

Half the profits from the sale of the $10 chocolate hippos are going to charities -- the Cleveland Foodbank and Climb for a Cure, a charity begun by DePauw University students for children who have brain cancer.

"This is something that provides a great value, not only to the organizations sponsoring and buying this product, but also to themself and whoever they give them to," David Spotts tells WKYC.

"He's a cute little chubby thing with an accordion," smiles Kathy Galcoczy, owner of Baker Candies, which experimented with various hippo designs before settling on the final product.

"And he's substantial," she explains. "He's seven ounces. He's not just a tiny thing. He's seven ounces of chocolate and it's solid chocolate. Our chocolate, and that's the best."

They've only been making the hippos for a couple months, and sell them at their Baker Candies stores in Collinwood and in Willoughby Hills, and on their candy company's website.

All those involved are hoping the idea of chocolate hippos for Christmas will stick in people's heads, just like that song seems to do.