The writers at the Estes Valley Voice got into the holiday spirit with our Who’s Your Favorite Snowman survey. We even wrote some snowman jokes.
Q: What do snowmen eat for breakfast?
A: Frosties, Snowflakes, or Ice Crispies
Q: What do you get when you cross a snowman with a baker?
A: Frosty the Dough-man
Q What do you call a snowman on rollerblades?
A: A snowmobile
Pixel, the Estes Valley Voice’s snowman who lives in a magic snow globe, is going home with Kristin Schmelter, and she promises not to let Pixel melt.
Schmelter is retired from a career with a biopharmaceutical company in Chicago where she worked as a director of marketing and sales. She and her husband George, who is an ordained deacon at Our Lady of the Mountains Catholic Church, moved to Estes Park in August.
The Estes Valley Voice held a drawing for the snow globe and asked our readers who their favorite snowman was and what characteristics they most admired in a snowman.
Hands down Frosty the Snowman was the crowd favorite snowman, receiving 46% of the votes cast in the survey, followed by Olaf from “Frozen” with just over 20% of the vote. Coming in for third place was Sam the Snowman from the 1964 Rankin/Bass TV special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” at 11%. And not to be forgotten, the Abominable Snowman from “Monster’s Inc.” took fourth with nearly 6% of the vote.
Schmelter cast her vote for the Abominable Snowman.
Also rans included Leon from “Elf”; Everest, a baby Yeti in the film “Abominable”; Jack Frost, the personification of frost, ice, snow, sleet, winter, freezing cold, and old man winter; Blue Snowman, a character that debuted in 1946 appearing in DC Comics including Wonder Woman; The Snowman, a villain in the Batman Comics; “The Snowman,” by children’s picture book by British author Raymond Briggs; Angus, a snowman from Maine, who held the world record for tallest snowman at 113 feet, 7 inches tall; Riesi, a snowman built in Donnersbachwald, Austria in 2020 that was 124.8 feet tall; Mr. Bingle, a snowman marketed and sold by the Department store Dillard’s and who began as a mascot of the Maison Blanche department store in New Orleans; and La Statue de Neige, a snowman in an 1899 French short silent comedy film by Georges Méliès.
One participant cast their vote for “any homemade snowman in someone’s yard.” Another write-in came in for Jack Frost in the movie with Michael Keaton, and one person set their sights on Pixel, our snow globe snowman.
The top attributes for a snowman were friendly, magical, and funny, but both heroic and villainous were desired snowman characteristic as were happy and fluffy. One surprising response was “melty.”
We asked readers to tell us if they had any memorable experiences or stories related to their favorite snowman. Several people related childhood memories of building a snowman. One reader wrote, “I have always loved building snowmen with my family, finding the perfect carrot for the nose, rocks for the mouth, sticks for the arms, scarf and silly hat! Then warming up with a hot cup of tea or cocoa!!”
The Frosty the Snowman song was a part of many readers snowman memories. The tune, which dates to 1950, was first recorded by Gene Autry and by Jimmy Durante, and then covered by many singers including Nat King Cole, Guy Lombardo, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Ella Fitzgerald, the Ronettes, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, Glen Campbell, Billy Idol, Michael Bublé, and the Jackson Five, . The eponymous snowman comes to life when children place a magical hat on his head. The song inspired a Little Golden Book and in 1969 the story was made into a TV cartoon.
Another reader shared a bittersweet story about how the Christmas before her two-year-old son died, they made a mini snowman on their porch. Her son died in 1982 and since then she has collected snowmen every year since. “I would love to add an Estes snowman to my year round collection.” While this reader did not win the drawing, the Estes Valley Voice writing team arranged to get a second Pixel snowman snow globe to thank her for her vulnerability in sharing a deeply personal, touching story. As writers, we know that stories help us to understand ourselves and one another.
Fifty-four people weighed in on our favorite snowman drawing. We had a lot of fun reading our reader’s responses. We plan to build on the Pixel story for next year’s holiday season, and to paraphrase the last stanza of Frosty’s song:
Pixel the snowman had to hurry on this way
But he waved goodbye saying don’t you cry
I’ll be back again some day.…
Now for a few more snowman jokes.
Q: What do you call a snowman past his prime?
A: Water
Q: What do you call it when a snowman throws a tantrum?
A: A meltdown
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