Friendly Snowman Winter Symbol

A snowman is a figure made of snow that schematically represents a human being. Usually, a snowman consists of three snowballs of different sizes stacked on top of each other, representing the lower and upper torso and the head. Pebbles or pieces of coal are usually used as the face, a carrot or twig as the nose, and several small pebbles as the mouth. Often a snowman also gets a pot or bucket placed on his head as a hat. Some also decorate the snowman with a scarf. Smaller snowballs are placed on the sides to represent the arms and possibly to hold a brushwood broom. Sometimes a twig is also put in the snowballs for each arm. A snowman can be very small, but can also grow several feet tall, depending on the number and size of the snowballs.

In the Middle Ages, a figure of this name was completely unknown. The oldest literary evidence of snow sculptures is from the 16th century, for example in Shakespeare. The snowman only became popular in the 18th century. In the 19th century, attitudes towards winter gradually changed, and it no longer appeared to be only harsh and depriving. Thus, pictorial representations of winter now increasingly included sledding, skating, and even snowmen, which became a popular children's book motif in the Biedermeier period. The shape became more spherical, the appearance much friendlier. Around 1900, snowmen also appeared as figures for the Christmas tree.

The image of a friendly winter symbol is also very much influenced by the growing popularity of the postcard at the end of the 19th century. Postcard publishers discover the snowman as a motif for Christmas and New Year greetings. Around the same time, the advertising industry also increasingly uses the snowman for its purposes. On January 18, the World Day of the Snowman takes place. The date was inspired by the shape of the stick, a 1, and the snowman, which resembles the 8. January is usually cold enough to celebrate snowmen and their day.