Snowman Warriors

Long ago, in the cold heart of Winter, there was a village on the edge of nowhere. During the warm months of Spring through Fall, this village prospered, but after the snows came to stay, something evil lurked in the nighttime shadows.

During nights of Winter, these creatures made of shadow and ice would break into houses and steal the people within. You may ask, why would anyone live in a village where their lives were constantly threatened by something they couldn't kill? To put it simply, those who lived there were more stubborn than the cold.

Although circumstances change, children are the same wherever you go. One child of the village, Thomas, loved the snow. He would spend all the day-filled hours he could spare in the frozen water in front of his house.

One day, Thomas had the idea to roll snow into three balls, each one larger than the last. He stacked them so they would stand as tall as he. He used rocks for eyes and a mouth, and what remained of wild grass and branches nearby provided arms and hair.

When his mother called him in, well before the sun had completely set, he named his snowman and ran inside. That night, when the village was dark and quiet, monsters crept into the village. They couldn't see well through their ice eyes, but they could smell, and what they smelled was the fish Thomas's mother had cooked that night.

Instead of a fresh meal, they found the men of snow enchanted by children’s magic, and a great battle ensued.

When Thomas woke up, he rushed to the window to check on his snowman and found shattered ice and footprints the size of his head.

The village council gathered to speculate the reason Thomas and his family were still alive. Had Thomas been listening, he could’ve given them an answer. Like any child who loved the snow, when given the choice between listening to the drivel of adults or creating another snow friend, he had already begun rolling.

On the second night, when the monsters returned to avenge their fallen partners, they were met by a second snowman, one braver than the last.

When the sun rose on the second day, Thomas ran to find more ice and footprints, but no snowman. While he worked on building a third one, the council continued to wonder why this house had been protected when the one down the road had been destroyed and the family taken. On the other hand, when the other children saw what Thomas had created, they went home and built a snowman of their own.

One the third morning, not one house with a snowman out front had been disturbed, and that information had gotten the council's attention. "For one night,' the council decreed, "every house shall have a snowman to protect it." Most of the villagers were happy to oblige the odd whims of their leaders and what seemed to be a last-ditch effort to protect them.

But there was one house that refused to accept the order. Thomas threw a tantrum, stomping around in the snow for hours. He couldn’t believe everyone was copying his idea. When his mother told him to make one just like the last, he did as instructed, but when she called him in right before the last light faded, he made a change. With one hard push, the head came tumbling down. Watch them try and copy that, he thought. And with that, the night fell.

In the morning, there was nothing left of Thomas' house except for two remining snowballs stacked on top. The village figured out what happened, and every Winter night since then, every house had a snowman protector. Children and adults alike built armies to keep their houses safe. The young helped the old, and the healthy helped the sick.

Today, we still build snowmen to protect our homes from monsters of shadow and ice. You may see children building them now, decorating them in hats and scarves, carrying on the legend of Thomas and his pride.