Many of the students in my recreational leadership class at Christian College were from Kentucky, Texas and Oklahoma. They’d never skated on ice, slid on a snowy hill or made a snowman.

One of their first assignments was to build a snowman, whenever the snow was just right. Just right meant that if you squeezed a handful, it would stick together; and if you rolled a little ball, it would pick up snow and eventually become a huge ball.

The assignment was in September, and students were advised to work in small groups. “Can our boyfriends help?”

“Of course,” I said, “but you’re to help with the project from start to finish.” Sometimes the campus was dotted with snow people.

In the late 1940s, I worked out a way to make a snowman without snow. It was done with fruit baskets, old sweat shirts, rag-bag sheets or draperies, crumpled newspapers and plaster. We made one as a class project one year when no snow fell early.

I took a tarp to put down under Frosty, because white plaster splashed on the grass was not in the landscape plan. We used a bushel apple basket, upside down, for the bottom “snowball” and a half-bushel basket for the torso. A stuffed, brown paper bag served as the head. Then we pinned and stitched an old drapery around the large basket, and the girls stuffed crumpled newspapers to make it a sphere.

They put the sweatshirt over the smaller basket, tied the sleeves together in front, and stuffed it. A stuffed paper sack made the head. One student read plaster mixing instructions to the class; one made a pipe by putting a black cork on a stick. Two created a top hat using a cardboard circle and half of a round Quaker Oats box painted black. Coal was found for buttons and black walnuts for eyes and a nose. Someone brought a big red bow and a red band for the hat. The men at the maintenance shop provided an old broom.

We used an old bucket and wooden spoon for mixing after all of the accessories were on hand. Plaster firms up quickly when proper portions are put into water. We used rubber gloves and the girls and I covered the no-snow-man with plaster by splashing it on with our hands. Then they mixed more and applied more plaster until a firm crust developed. They carefully brushed wet plaster on the paper head and let it set up before adding more plaster and the top hat. They stuffed thick, moist plaster in at the neck in order to hold the head upright, tied the red bow in place, and stuck the broom under Frosty’s arm before the plaster set completely.

We folded the tarp so the splattered plaster didn’t show and Frosty stood there, to the wonderment of all, until sometime in March. Then, workmen set him onto the back of my pickup, and we put him behind the barn until the next winter. I gave him a quick splashing of fresh plaster when Chub brought him from his summer hiding place.

Another year, we made Frosty on a roof at the hospital where children could see him and sing to him. After my children were old enough to help, we made “Frostys” as Christmas gifts for friends and soon ran out of baskets.

If you’d like to make one this winter, I’d suggest using plastic buckets of two sizes instead of baskets.