By: Dallin Rahlf 

Is “Frosty the Snowman” a horrifying movie symbolizing the metaphorical reincarnation of children’s creations once told in the old Frankenstein tale? No… no, it’s not. Why would you think that? It’s just a story about a very scary snowman coming to life through a hat. Nothing frightening about that at all! 

Was anyone else scared of Frosty? No? He kinda freaked me out. That movie was at the bottom of my list when it came to the "Christmas movies to put on every December" checklist. Did this movie ever discourage me from making a snowman out in the snow? Of course not! Making a snowman is every child’s dream. Making your very own, one-of-a-kind snowman with your siblings and/or parents and buddies? That’s a dream come true, and one everyone should experience, however old they may be. If you need some tips on how to build a snowman, you’ll find them below. 

Not all snow is “snowman worthy”

It’s tough to tell if you haven’t seen a ton of snow in your life, but you’ll eventually learn to feel the difference between snow that is too powdery and snow that is great for packing. See, not all snow is the same. I’m sure there’s tons of science behind the moisture in the air or the temperature outside during the snowfall or whatever, but for simple folk like me, all I need to know is the feel. 

Snow that is powdery is not great for making snowmen. Powdery snow is fluffy, light, and you can tell it right away by picking it up and trying to make it into a snowball. If it falls apart and can barely stay together, you’ve got snow that is great for skiing!… but bad for snowball fights and making snowmen. 

Snow that is a little more wet makes for great snowman building material. You can tell if it’s good snow by, again, trying to make a snowball. If it holds together very easily and would make your 4-year-old nephew cry if you hit them in the back with it, then you’ve got great snow for a snowman! 

Plan out your area

The actual making of a snowman requires a decent amount of snow. You’ll want to find a big chunk of grass (or a parking lot/driveway, if you don’t mind sore knees) to make your snowman in. You’ll be surprised how much snow it takes to make the base, and without a strong base, your snowman is doomed to quickly fall. That was a lesson I learned when I was but a young lad, and I made a snowman with a crappy base and… it fell. Cooler story in my head, I guess. 

Another thing to consider is how long you want your dear friend to stay alive. If you want him decorating your lawn long after the snow around him has melted, plan to put him in a flat, shady area. The sun in the winter shines bright and the heat reflects off the snow. If you put him in the middle of sunny land, he will survive not much longer than three moons. 

Plan your method of attack 

You’ve got a couple ways to go about the actual building of a snowman. In the cartoons and movies, you’ll see an adorable couple in their lower 30’s laughing and giggling as they roll a perfect ball into a larger ball. Meanwhile they’re discussing how the man’s son, Brax, age 9, just doesn’t seem to have the Christmas spirit anymore. It’s a whole thing that I have a hard time believing: rolling a perfect ball in the snow is next to impossible. Don’t let the lies of the media ruin your snowman experience. 

You CAN roll snow across the yard for your parts of your snowman, but I have found it to be pretty dang hard to make anything that looks pretty this way, especially for the base. The base requires a good amount of snow, and rolling snow is just… I dunno, hard and weird? It doesn’t roll as smooth as you think. It requires a lot of shaping and forming as you go along. It'll take time, but it's doable.

What can be much easier is picking the spot for your snowman and then bringing the snow to that spot with some shovels or hard working little children who are just DYING to play outside. Nothing says fun like labor, right kids?? Bringing the snow to that spot will allow you to make the base out of a massive mound of snow which will keep your snowman tough throughout those bright winter days. OR, you can use your massive amounts of snow to create some big mounds, and then combine them all together. 

Shape 

Once you’ve got all of your snow together, you can start creating the true aesthetic of the snowman. If you want something that looks like it came out of the movies, you’ll want to try and create three mounds to stack on top of each other, decreasing in size as you go up. If you go with this method, you’ll want to flatten the tops of the mounds. This will make stacking much, much easier. Do this three times, and you’ve got yourself a beautiful snowman. These snowmen look the best in the eyes of snowmen critics around the world. 

Decorate

Once you got their shape down, you can start decorating as you please. The “stereotypical snowman” has coal buttons, a scarf, stick arms, a coal smile, a carrot for a nose, coal eyes, a pipe, and a top-hat, if you’re lucky enough to have one of those bad boys in storage. That doesn’t mean that you need to make one that looks like this! Make it your own! Put on your favorite team’s jersey or something wild like a dress, or something. Your snowman is yours, and simply having fun with the decorating is all you need to worry about the entire time. Let each kid pick a region to decorate and let them go wild. Building a snowman is all about fun! Anything more or less than that and the police tends to get involved.