Traditions and Trivia: Frosty the Snow Man

It's not a Christmas carol; it's a just a Christmas song. But it's a big favorite among kids.

“Frosty the Snow Man,” written by Walter Rollins, is song most every child knows at least the chorus.

So long as there has been snow there have been snow men, at least according to Bob Eckstein, the author of "The History of the Snow Man." 

“Well, the first documented snow man I found was in 1380, an illuminated manuscript,” Eckstein said in an interview with NPR, documented on npr.org.

Eckstein mentions that snow men might be a part of man’s urge to depict himself, as well as stack things on top of one another.

“Whatever culture it was at the time, man was depicting himself and also the issues of the day,” he said. “He was sort of like a frozen Forrest Gump, you know, always there at the bench marks of important moments in our changing times.”

As far as the Christmas song goes, Gene Autry wanted something to follow in his success of the previous year's Christmas hit, “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer.”

According to Christmas-specials.wikia.com, “it took them months to decide on a living snowman as their subject, but they still had it ready in time for a 1950 release.” "Frosty the Snow Man," the song, was released along with children's book with the same title. A three-minute short film in black and white followed in 1954.

In 1969, the Rankin-Bass company released the popular 30-minute animated Christmas special that features comedians Jimmy Durante as the narrator and Jackie Vernon as Frosty.