A snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture. They are customarily built by children as part of a family project in celebration of winter. In some cases, participants in winter festivals will build large numbers of snowmen. Because a snowman is situation-specific, it is a good example of popular installation art.
Typical snowmen feature three snowballs, and some additional accouterments for facial and other features. Common accessories include branches for arms and a rudimentary smiley face, other possibilities are a carrot nose. Human clothing, such as hat or scarf may even be included. Low-cost and availability are an issue, since snowman are usually in a cold and/or wet environment, and abandoned to the elements once completed. Melting and sublimation is a common end of life scenario for most snowmen.
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Snow becomes suitable for packing when it approaches its melting point and becomes moist and compact. This allows for the construction of a large snowball by simply rolling it, until it grows to the desired size. If the snow ball reaches the bottom of the grass it may tear up some grass, gravel, dirt etc. Making a snowman out of powdered snow is difficult since it will not stick to itself, and if the temperature of packing snow drops, it will form an unusable denser form of powdered snow called crust. Thus the best time to build a snowman is usually in the next warmest afternoon directly following a snowfall with a sufficient amount of snow. In Europe and North America, snowmen are built with three spheres depicting the head, torso, and lower body.
The usual practice is to then dress the snowman, usually with rocks, coal, sticks, and vegetables. Carrots or cherries are often used for the nose, as are sticks for arms and stones for eyes (traditionally lumps of coal). Some like to dress their snowmen in clothing (scarves, jackets, hats). Others prefer not to risk leaving supplies out doors where they could easily be stolen or become stuck under melting ice. There are variations to these standard forms. These other types range from snow columns to elaborate snow sculptures (similar to ice sculptures).
Several patents have been awarded for the construction of Snowpeople. Recently, Marc Asperas of Melville, Long Island, was awarded his second patent US 8,011,991 for a spherical snow boulder that attracts snow using a snow adhesion surface and an electric charge applied to the surface that attracts crystalline snow. His original patent US 7,264,531 covers the basic snow boulder with the snow adhesion surface which is suitable for adhering both wet and dry or crystalline snow. The devices have an interior that is substantially lighter than snow, which allows the creator to easily roll and manipulate very large boulders. With his inventions, kids and big kids alike are empowered to easily construct and create perfectly formed and large snow people. Mr. Asperas plans to bring about world peace through the population of Snowpeople around the planet and to otherwise put a smile on people's faces.
Snowmen are usually built with two spheres in East Asia. In Japan, they are called yuki daruma (雪だるま yuki daruma) after the round shape of the Daruma doll.
Documentation of the first snowman is unclear. However, Bob Eckstein, author of The History of the Snowman documented snowmen from medieval times, by researching artistic depictions in European museums, art galleries, and libraries. The earliest documentation he found was a marginal illustration from a work titled Book of Hours from 1380, found in Koninklijke Bibliotheek, in The Hague[1]
In culture Snowman are a popular theme for Christmas and winter decorations, and also in children's media. A famous snowman character is Frosty the Snowman, featured in a common holiday song.
The record for the world's largest snowman was set in 2008 in Bethel, Maine. The snow-woman stood 122 feet 1 inch (37.21 m) in height, and was named in honor of Olympia Snowe, the senior Republican U.S. Senator representing Maine.[3]
The previous record was also a snowman built in Bethel, Maine, in February 1999. The snowman was named "Angus, King of the Mountain" in honor of the then current governor of Maine, Angus King. It was 113 feet 7 inches (34.62 m) tall and weighed over 9,000,000 pounds (4,080,000 kg).[4]
A snowman symbol is included in the Unicode character set with code point U+2603. (☃)
Snowmen can also be a theme for toys, costumes, and decorations.
In addition to snowmen, there other things can produced with similar materials. Typical variations on the snowman concept include using raw-materials other then snow, or using similar materials but a new meme. See Snow sculpture.