We Wish You a Ripper Christmas, by Colin Buchanan & Greg Champion, illustrated by Roland Harvey

We wish you a ripper Christmas
A full-bore ripper Christmas
A dead-set ripper Christmas
And a snappy New Year.

Colin Buchanan & Greg Champion have been creating Australian Christmas songs for many years, delighting Aussie youngsters and their teachers and parents with their humour and the catchiness of their tunes. We Wish You a Ripper Christmas continues that tradition, taking the chorus of an earlier offering (included in Fair Dinkum Aussie Christmas) and telling the story of Santa WOmbat losing his naughty and nice list and needing some help from the other Aussie animals to find it in time to deliver the presents.

Set to the tune of We Wish You a Merry Christmas, the song is easy to sing, and children will join in on the chorus even on a first read. The story is humours, and is brought to life in detailed water colour illustrations by the amazing Roland Harvey. And, of course, the book is accompanied by a CD recording of the song, complete with karaoke track so that kids can sing it for themselves, either for performance or for fun.

A great Christmas gift.

 

We Wish You a Ripper Christmas, by Colin Buchanan & Greg Champion, illustrated by Roland Harvey
Scholastic, 2013
ISBN 9781742837239

Available from good bookstores and online.

Fair Dinkum Aussie Christmas, by Bucko and Champs

We wish you a ripper Christmas
A full-bore ripper Christmas
A dead-set ripper Christmas
And a snappy New Year.

Like it or not, Christmas is coming, and it won’t be long before you start hearing Christmas songs playing in shopping centres, schools, and even your home. This year, instead of singing of snow and sleigh rides, how about focussing instead on Australian traditions such as barbecues, fire trucks and utes?

In Fair Dinkum Aussie Christmas, Bucko and Champs (aka Colin Buchanan and Greg Champion) share ten uniquely Australian Christmas songs, many sung to familiar tunes. From Deck the Shed With Bits of Wattle and We Wish You a Ripper Christmas (see excerpt above), to Australians Let Us Barbecue, sung to the tune of the national anthem, there is plenty here to tickle the funny bone of Aussies young and old, and, importantly, to get them singing along. The accompanying CD means there’s no excuse for not joining in, and the blokey voices of Bucko and Champs mean there are no high notes to strain for.

Presented as a hardcover picture book, with colourful, humorous illustrations by Kilmeny Niland, this is a durable offering which will last many Christmas seasons and become a family favourite. It is also suitable for school use, especially for teachers searching for something different for end of year assembly items. Beaut stuff.

Fair Dinkum Aussie Christmas, by Bucko and champs, illustrated by Kilmeny Niland
Scholastic, 2007