Snowmen
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47 free Snowmen trivia questions with answers — pop culture quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Snowmen trivia questions with answers. The snowman is one of the few characters everyone on Earth with a cold winter has built with their own hands, and it has a surprisingly deep back-catalogue: a 1380 manuscript doodle, a snowman commissioned from Michelangelo, a Brussels festival that got out of hand, and a 122-foot snowwoman named after a US senator. This quiz covers the whole snowman: how many snowballs Americans and Britons use, why powder snow won't pack, the Frosty song and its 1969 TV special, Olaf and 'Do You Want to Build a Snowman?', Raymond Briggs' wordless film and 'Walking in the Air', Michael Keaton's Jack Frost, Calvin's deranged snow art, Japanese yukidaruma and snow rabbits, the Sapporo Snow Festival, record snowball fights and the Himalayan 'Abominable Snowman'. Easy questions for a family round, hard ones for the person who claims to know all the Christmas specials. Everything is family-safe. Every answer was checked against a documented source and the citation sits under each explanation.
30 of 47 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In North America a classic snowman is built from how many snowballs?
Three
In the United Kingdom two spheres are the norm, one for the body and one for the head.
Q 02Snow is best for packing into a snowman when it is in which state?
Close to melting and moist
Close to melting and moist is ideal; powder will not stick to itself, so the moment is the first warm afternoon after a decent snowfall.
Q 03The earliest known depiction of a snowman is in a Book of Hours from which year?
1380
1380: a marginal drawing in a Book of Hours of that year, held in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, is the earliest known snowman image, found by the author of The History of the Snowman.
Q 04Which Renaissance artist was commissioned by Piero de' Medici to make a snowman in 1494?
Michelangelo
Michelangelo, then in his teens, was asked by Piero de' Medici in January 1494 to sculpt a snowman in the courtyard of the Medici palace, a tale recorded by Vasari.
Q 05Which city's 1511 snowman festival ended with residents building over 100 satirical, rude snow sculptures?
Brussels
Brussels: during the bitter winter of 1511 its residents built more than a hundred snow figures, many obscene or mocking the authorities, an episode remembered as the Miracle of 1511.
Q 06Mary Dillwyn, who took the earliest known snowman photo around 1853, was from which country?
Wales
The salt print is in the National Library of Wales; Dillwyn was one of the earliest women photographers anywhere.
Q 07Guards at which colonial settlement supposedly left snowmen on watch during a 1690 massacre?
Schenectady
Schenectady: the legend says the Dutch village's gates stood open with only snowmen as sentries when French and Indigenous raiders struck on 8 February 1690, killing about sixty.
Q 08Bethel, Maine's record-setting snowwoman of 2008 was named Olympia in honour of whom?
A US senator
A US senator: Olympia Snowe of Maine lent her name to the giant snowwoman finished in February 2008, which took the height record from Bethel's own 1999 snowman.
Q 09How tall was Bethel, Maine's record-setting snowwoman of 2008?
Just over 122 feet
Just over 122 feet: Olympia measured 122 feet 1 inch (37.2 m), taller than a ten-storey building, with a base so wide it needed construction equipment rather than mittens.
Q 10Snowmen in Japan are traditionally built from two balls, not three, and are called what?
Yukidaruma
Yukidaruma: the two-ball Japanese snowman takes its name from the round, limbless Daruma doll it resembles, 'yuki' meaning snow.
Q 11Who first recorded 'Frosty the Snowman', by Walter Rollins and Steve Nelson, in 1950?
Gene Autry
The writers pitched it to Autry because his 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' had been a smash the year before; his version reached number 7 on the US pop chart.
Q 12According to the song, what brings Frosty to life?
An old silk hat
An old silk hat: 'there must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found'; the lyrics also give him a corncob pipe, a button nose and two eyes made out of coal.
Q 13Which New York town holds an annual Frosty parade and claims to be the song's setting?
Armonk
Armonk: the Westchester hamlet holds a Frosty Day parade each winter and claims Steve Nelson wrote the song about it; neighbouring White Plains, where Nelson lived, is the other claimant.
Q 21Olaf, the summer-loving snowman in Disney's Frozen, is voiced by which actor?
Josh Gad
Josh Gad was already Broadway's Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon; he has said he regrets making Olaf sound so much like himself.
Q 22In early drafts of Frozen, Olaf was written as what?
The first of Elsa's snowman guards
The first of Elsa's snowman guards: early drafts cast Elsa as the villain and Olaf as the obnoxious first of her snowman army, before he was rewritten as the sisters' childhood creation.
Q 23Olaf famously says he likes what kind of embrace?
Warm hugs
Warm hugs: 'Hi, I'm Olaf, and I like warm hugs' is his introduction, the joke being a snowman obsessed with heat who has never seen what sun does to snow.
Q 14Which studio, also behind Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, produced the 1969 special Frosty the Snowman?
Rankin/Bass
Rankin/Bass's Frosty first aired on CBS on December 7, 1969, straight after the fifth showing of A Charlie Brown Christmas, and both drew big ratings.
Q 15Who narrated the 1969 Frosty special, in his final film role?
Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante narrated the 1969 special and sang the title song in his gravelly voice; after his 1972 stroke, Andy Griffith took over narration for the 1976 sequel.
Q 16In the 1969 special, what is the name of the inept magician who wants his hat back?
Professor Hinkle
Professor Hinkle: the failed magician throws away his top hat, then wants it back once it brings Frosty to life; his rabbit Hocus Pocus sides with the children.
Q 17The girl who rides north with Frosty in a refrigerated freight car in the 1969 special is called what?
Karen
Karen: the little girl rides north with Frosty in a refrigerated boxcar, catches a chill, and Frosty melts in a greenhouse trying to warm her before Santa revives him.
Q 18The 1969 Frosty special's character designs were by Paul Coker Jr., best known for which magazine?
Mad
Mad: Paul Coker Jr. drew for Mad magazine for decades and gave Frosty its Christmas-card look; the animation itself was done by Mushi Production in Tokyo.
Q 19What do the children name Frosty's wife in the 1976 sequel Frosty's Winter Wonderland?
Crystal
A jealous Jack Frost blows off Frosty's hat, and it is Crystal's kiss and a snow corsage that bring him back.
Q 20In the 1992 special Frosty Returns, Frosty was voiced by which actor?
John Goodman
John Goodman voiced Frosty in the 1992 CBS special Frosty Returns, in which a spray called Summer Wheeze threatens to make snow vanish; Jonathan Winters narrated.
Q 24In Frozen II, Olaf no longer needs his personal snow flurry because Elsa gave him what?
A layer of permafrost
A layer of permafrost: in Frozen II Olaf explains that Elsa gave him a permafrost, replacing the personal snow flurry that had been his portable air-conditioning since the first film.
Q 25What is the giant snow guard Elsa creates at her ice palace in Frozen called?
Marshmallow
Marshmallow: the hulking snow guard Elsa conjures to throw Anna, Kristoff and Olaf out of her ice palace is named Marshmallow, and he returns at the end of the short Frozen Fever.
Q 26Frozen, the film that gave the world Olaf, is loosely based on which Hans Christian Andersen tale?
The Snow Queen
The Snow Queen is the inspiration; Andersen also wrote a story actually titled The Snowman, about a snowman who falls in love with a stove.
Q 27Raymond Briggs' picture book The Snowman, published in 1978, is unusual for what reason?
It has no words
It has no words: Briggs told the whole story in wordless pencil-crayon panels, and the 1982 film kept that spirit, with no dialogue apart from the song 'Walking in the Air'.
Q 28Which British broadcaster first showed the animated The Snowman on Boxing Day 1982?
Channel 4
It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short and came third in Channel 4's own poll of the 100 Greatest Christmas Moments.
Q 29The boy in The Snowman flies with his snowman to a party at the North Pole and meets whom?
Father Christmas
Father Christmas: at the North Pole party he gives the boy a scarf with a snowman pattern, the proof next morning that it was not a dream when only a hat and coal remain.
Q 30Which rock star filmed an alternative live-action introduction to The Snowman?
David Bowie
David Bowie filmed the 1984 introduction, made for the American release, in which he finds the snowman-patterned scarf in an attic, replacing Raymond Briggs's original on-screen opening.