Six white boomers, snow white boomers,
racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun…

(from Six White Boomers by R Harris & J Brown)

So what is a white boomer? It is a large, male Kangaroo that has white fur. When they move fast across the dry sands of Australia, they make a booming noise so they earned the name boomers. Most boomers are not white by the way

In Australia, Christmas Eve can be hot – and it certainly isn’t cold and snowy. Santa’s poor reindeer would find it very hard to pull a sleigh across the Australian skies so he gives them a rest while six large boomers pull the sleigh instead. The boomers can’t fly normally, but with Santa’s magic, anything is possible.

Rolf Harris made this story famous in the 1960s by releasing his version of six white boomers. You can see the lyrics on Rolf’s website (it would be a copyright infringement if we copied the words here!)

If you are creative, you may like the instructions on painting some white boomers of your own.