Where Did They Hide My Presents? Silly Dilly Christmas Songs

Silly Dilly Songs

by Alan Katz, David Catrow (Illustrator)

It's Christmastime! While everyone else is singing "Frosty the Snowman" and "Winter Wonderland," ring in your holidays with "Our Friendly Mailman" and "Something in My Brother's Underpants"!
Songwriter and comedy writer par excellence Alan Katz roasts old Christmas chestnuts and turns them into sparkling new holiday hits that everyone will love. With uproarious pictures by illustrator and cartoonist David Catrow, this holiday collection guarantees hours of silly dilly cheer for kids and families everywhere!

Genres: Christmas, Picture Books, Poetry, Music, Humor, Childrens, Holiday

32 pages, Hardcover

First published October 4, 2005

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hilarious holiday book filled with songs/poems to the tune of classic Christmas songs. The subject matter ranges from driving around a crowded mall parking lot, a baby sibling's stinky diaper, trying to find hidden presents, snowball fights, and much more. I absolutely love reading these throughout the month of December to my students. They laugh out loud and I'm sure part of that has to do with listening to me pretend to sing.

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great way to teach singing Christmas songs and poetry at the same time. What fun.

And this is my kind of kid's poetry. Sing this to "Winter Wonderland." You don't find this kind of quality stuff in The New Yorker:

Doorbell rings,
Gee, who is it?
Party guests
Christmas visit
The mood is so swell
But what is that smell?
Something in my brother's underpants!

[Panda Incognito · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grew up loving Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs, and I can still sing almost every song in the whole book from memory. When I encountered later books from the series as a teenager, I found they weren't as good as the original, and that holds true with this volume as well.

There are some really funny, clever songs here, but others feel repetitive and don't flow well. Even though the tunes are super familiar, I had a hard time pacing myself because the words are often inconsistent with the meter. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to read this on Open Library, but this isn't something I plan to add to my personal collection.

[Kris Dersch · Rating 3 out of 5]

Funny and cute. As with the other books in this series, musical notation would be nice and would help with the singability, although these songs are so well known it's a little easier. I would have liked a little more variety...all songs seem to have the same theme of holiday business and chaos, a little variety and maybe, given the holiday theme, a tiny bit of depth might have been nice.

[Addie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very silly book of songs that replace traditional Christmas carols. It made us laugh out loud many times! The content is quite comparable to Louis Sachar's Sideways Stories From Wayside School.

[Kelsey Nunez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a cute and silly book of Christmas songs with different words. I agree with the age limit on this book (2-8). I think that this would be a great book for a teacher or a parent to do a read aloud with.

[Jeani · Rating 4 out of 5]

These songs are fun!

[★ gwiz ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of silly songs that kids could love to sing.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked a lot of the songs and the illustrations weren't that bad. They're not my style that I typically like, but I didn't mind them in this book.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reworded Christmas classics with silly illustrations.
Rather tedious to get through.

[Lauri Meyers · Rating 2 out of 5]

New humorous lyrics to classic holiday songs .

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clever and humorous new words to familiar Christmas carols, a few of these had my 6th graders laughing out loud. I don’t find Catrow’s illustration style appealing in the least, though.

[Tommy Schlosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, but the songs don't seem to flow as well as the songs in his other books.

[Dolly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a humorous book of alternate lyrics to popular Christmas carols. Although all of the songs are familiar, we had to pull up some instrumental versions of the songs to help us keep the melodies along with the very different words. Between the hilarious illustrations and silly dilly lyrics, we giggled the entire time.

We are big fans of David Catrow and we have enjoyed his collaborations with Alan Katz. We've read other 'silly dilly' song books, like Smelly Locker: Silly Dilly School Songs, Mosquitoes Are Ruining My Summer!: And Other Silly Dilly Camp Songs, and Take Me Out of the Bathtub and Other Silly Dilly Songs. We will certainly look for more of their books at our local library.

One of the refrains to the tune of 'Jingle Bells' was our girls favorite:

"Snowball fight
Snowball fight
Join us if you dare
We'll make sure a clump of snow
Lands in your underwear!" (p. 16)

But one that truly hit home for me, as my vehicle is having battery/alternator troubles tonight, was the following (to the tune of 'Silver Bells'):

"Battery
Battery
The one in this car needs replacing
I am stuck
A tow truck
Is what I'll get Christmas day!" (p. 30)

[Lesley Burnap · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book to share with your favorite kids! Feel free to sing along! Fantastic author/ illustrator duo! This series of silly-silly books is bound to tickle YOUR funny bone!

[Tam · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is filled with "silly dilly Christmas songs." You could always read the poems but we have fun singing them!

They are:
Santa Claus Is All Over Town (Santa Claus Is Coming to Town)
Sugarplum Fairy (Little Drummer Boy)
Our Friendly Mailman (Frosty the Snowman)
Toy Catalogs (O Tannenbaum)
Pick Me Up! (Sleigh Ride)
At the Malls (Deck the Halls)
Snowball Fight (Jingle Bells)
Where Did They Hide My Presents? (Rudolph)
Something in My Brother's Underpants (Winter Wonderland)
Twim the Tree (Let It Snow)
We're Caroling (O Christmas Tree)
Hanging Lights (Silent Night)
Batteries (Silver Bells)

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

My grandson, Trevor (age 5) checked this out of his school library three times! He and I were laughing as we “sang” the songs! Not a story, but just as the cover says: “silly dilly Christmas songs”.

Our favorites - and you have to SING them:

‘Our Friendly Mailman’ - (Frosty the Snowman…)
‘Toy Catalogs’ - (‘O Tannenbaum’)
‘Snowball Fight’ – (Jingle Bells)
…and the one Trevor goes into hysterics over…
‘Something in My Brother’s Underpants’ – (Winter Wonderland)

Very cute and good for laughs from kids and adult “singers” as well! Hilarious illustrations all will enjoy!
(I bought copies for the other two families of grandkids this year!)

[Emmaline MacBeath · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adore Take Me Out of the Bathtub by Katz. But I had a terrible time trying to get the words to match the intended songs in this one. Most were complicated and didn't flow easily. I found only a couple of the songs to be laugh out loud funny like, "At The Malls" (to the tune of Deck the Halls: "At the malls, no parking spaces, Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma, can't we go home?") and "Something in My Brother's Underpants."

The illustrations are as always wonderful and funny. This book is for older elementary children (ages 8-12) who will understand and get a kick out of the slapstick humor and be able to make sense of matching the poems to the Christmas songs.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a funny book that took modern christmas tunes and gave them new lyrics about how the christmas season might really be turning out at home. I enjoyed seeing the remakes of these popular christmas classics and I sang a couple of them out loud to see how they sounded and they were funny. I would recommend if you enjoyed wacky renditions of songs.

*Taken from my book reviews blog: http://reviewsatmse.blogspot.com/2010...

[Jessica Vu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun, silly, and cute book for a classroom where all students celebrate Chirstmas. Poems/Songs are written to the tune of popular Chirstmas songs such as, "O Christmas Tree" and "Silent Night."
I would have 2-4th graders create thier own poems to these same classic songs.

Students will have so much fun giggling to this silly book of poems.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, fun read! I'm adding this to the list for next year's read-aloud list. Now I just have to add instrumental versions of these songs to a playlist so I can get help with carrying a tune for the readings!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

That artwork in this book is very exaggerated. It reminds me of the style that Dr. Seuss used in his books. The book has all kinds of funny lyrics written to original Christmas songs. I would love to use this book around Christmas time with my family.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of very humorous songs that are remakes off of the classic Christmas songs that young children know. It is a good chance to explore rewriting and just to be silly. Children would love to learn them so they could then share with their friends.

[Cara · Rating 4 out of 5]

It cute book. I thought it was a story (didn't see the part about Christmas songs, lol), but liked the songs.
The only downside to this book is I didn't know most of the songs that the poems were modeled after, so the timing was off. But most were funny and it was a cute, fun read.

[Kate Hastings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Satirical words to traditional Christmas carols-- sure to be a hit with kids as warped as me!

[Tiffany · Rating 5 out of 5]

My children LOVED this book. It's funny words to traditional Christmas songs. My son's favorite: "Something in My Brother's Underpants"

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

clever song parodies using christmas carols. could incorporate one or two into outreach during holidays.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance · Rating 3 out of 5]

Little songs set to the tune of Christmas carols. Ages 6-10

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're after a good laugh and a little, no a lot of silliness, this is the book for you. SO funny! My son couldn't stop laughing...and I couldn't stop laughing at him! :)

[Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

More silly rhymes, this time set to Christmas songs.

The illustrations are watercolors, colored pencils and ink.