Both the “Christmas” tree and sometimes life size snowmen originated in pagan cultures. Snowman documentation dates as far back as the Middle Ages. Before that, we can only assume that in the dark times of winter, humans were creating art with anything available, including snow. According to Bob Eckstein, author of The History of the Snowman, the snowman’s earliest known representation is in the 1380 Book of Hours in the Koninkijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, Netherlands.
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In 1845, Mary Dillwyn took the first photograph of a snowman, shortly after Francis Ronalds invented the first successful device for continuous recording, otherwise known as a camera. Not that Frosty is aware that he’s the subject of one of the first photographs ever taken. For decades after that, variations of snowmen materialized in books, magazines, songs and films.
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Snowman Suffers Unrequited Love
Hans Christian Andersen wrote a fairy tale about an outdoor snowman, who wishes he could be indoors as he’s fallen in love with a stove. It isn’t difficult to see the irony in that love story, which begins with a snowman standing in the garden of a manor house watching the sun set and the moon rise. His sole companion is a watchdog who lives in a doghouse nearby.
The dog reminisces about happier days when he slept under the stove inside the house. The snowman can see the stove through a window and believes it is female. He pines for her and longs to be in the room with the stove, but the dog warns him he would melt. There’s much more to the story if you care to read it.
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Don’t Count on Snowmen to Protect You
Snowmen, unbeknownst to them, played a part in one of the bloodiest events in early American history; the Schenectady Massacre of 1690. At the time, Fort Schenectady was a remote Dutch settlement under constant threat of attack. A blizzard descended on the fort, and the gates were frozen open. The freezing soldiers left a pair of snowmen as substitute “guards” to protect the fort when they left for shelter. They were not aware of a looming threat. A contingent of French-Canadian soldiers and Native Americans attacked and, unfazed by the stoic but inefficient snowmen, killed 60 inhabitants. This was well before the modern day Frosty, who we all know can come to life. Connection to Christmas is coming.
Snowwomen Rise Up
Residents of Bethel, Maine celebrated feminism on a much grander scale than did the Dutch in the snow representation of their queen. Ignoring the traditional genderless snowman, they constructing Olympia, who stood 122 feet tall and much larger than the average outside snowman . Olympia was considered the world’s largest snowperson, until Austria won the title in 2008. Bethel’s amazing snowwoman had eyelashes made of skis, lips made of car tires, a 100-foot-long scarf, and a six-foot-long snowflake pendant. Imagine if she came to life!
Connection to Christmas is here.
Snowwomen Rise Up
Residents of Bethel, Maine celebrated feminism on a much grander scale than did the Dutch in the snow representation of their queen. Ignoring the traditional genderless snowman, they constructing Olympia, who stood 122 feet tall and much larger than the average outside snowman . Olympia was considered the world’s largest snowperson, until Austria won the title in 2008. Bethel’s amazing snowwoman had eyelashes made of skis, lips made of car tires, a 100-foot-long scarf, and a six-foot-long snowflake pendant. Imagine if she came to life! Connection to Christmas is here.
It’s Here! Snowmen and Christmas
The recognizable version of a snowman, three balls of snow stacked upon each other, with stovepipe hat, a button nose and two eyes made out of coal, came to life in the Christmas Season during the Victorian era. Prince Albert, not the kind in a can, incorporated some of Eastern Europe’s traditions into England’s. Santa Claus and the snowman became omnipresent icons for Boxing Day and the holiday season.
Now, in the yards of homes all over the world, life size snowmen are included in Christmas decorations. Snowmen are also found on Christmas cards and some people collect them to use as interior holiday decoration. There are also notable snowmen like Olaf and the Abominable Snowman, but there’s one that was made famous in both song and film – Frosty the Snowman.
The Christmas animated television special about Frosty the Snowman debuted in 1969. Narrated by Jimmy Durante, the film involves a magic hat that transforms Frosty the Snowman into a living being. Without ruining the whole plot, eventually Frosty and the town children wind up at the North Pole. When Frosty eventually melts, Santa Claus explains that Frosty is made out of special Christmas snow. Frosty then comes back to life and everyone has a Merry Christmas.
The television special is based on the song, Frosty the Snowman, written in 1950 by Walter “Jack” Rollins and Steve Nelson. They wrote it for Gene Autry, after Autry had such a huge hit with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer the previous year. However, unlike Rudolph, Frosty the Snowman is not necessarily a Christmas song. Nothing about Christmas is mentioned in the song’s lyrics at all. It’s just a generic wintertime song.
It was when Frosty producers decided to make the song into a Christmas special that Christmas came into the story, by changing the final line of the song. The original song ends with, “But he waved goodbye, saying, don’t you cry. I’ll be back again someday,” as evidenced here. On the television special, the last line is, “But he waved goodbye, saying, don’t you cry. I’ll be back on Christmas day.” Adding a bit more marketing magic to Christmas.