Building a snowman is a favourite tradition during the holidays. After the first snowfall of the season, children can be seen creating snow creatures that have their basis in a number of different legends. In Russia, 2500 years ago, people built snowmen in response to apparent sightings of the Siberian Yeti.

Other northern European countries such as the Ukraine and Poland share legends that describe the first snow people. Usually, the stories include a lonely older, childless couple who create a snow person out of the freshly fallen snow. A matronly or paternal nature figure (Grandfather Frost, Mother Snow, etc.), watching over the older couple, would then turn the snow person into a real child who visited the couple once a year during the winter months, melting away once the weather turned warm.