Frozen Follies

The snowman represents a frosty facet of holiday nostalgia, a frozen friend of millions of children. An international icon, the snowman’s fame reaches far and wide as the majority of northern cultures celebrate the snowman in a variety of forms and fashions. In this edition of The StickerTalk, we invite you to indulge in a flurry of facts about this sleeted celebrity!

The first snowman is thought to have made an appearance in the 1380 in The Book of Hours. About a century later in 1494, a young Michelangelo received a commission to sculpt a snowman for a powerful Italian ruler. Snowmen made history yet again in 1690 when haggard Dutch watchmen at Fort Schenectady formed snowmen to serve as decoy guards to potential attackers. However, their plan failed, and the fort fell to a combined force of French and Native American soldiers.
Snowmen serve an integral part in a multitude of world record titles. The world’s tallest snowman towered over adoring crowds at an astounding 122 feet tall! This frozen feat hailing from Maine was named Olympia in honor of a beloved state senator, Olympia Snowe. While Maine boasts the largest snowman, London, England, lays claim on the world’s smallest snowman. British scientists at the National Physical Laboratory created a microscopic snowman using tools typically used to handle nanoparticles, an artistic achievement measuring only 0.01 millimeters.
Although the arrival of wintry weather is often anticipated by many, the Unicorn Hunters club at Lake Superior State University were so ready for spring in 1971 that they celebrated the onset of higher temperatures by burning a paper effigy of a snowman! In an unorthodox act turned annual celebration, the students at the university celebrate the snowman burning by eating hotdogs and hamburgers while appreciating the fire’s desired heat.