Save the Snowman!

I can remember my first white Christmas like it was yesterday, and in fairly good detail. I was three years old and visiting my Grandparents in Concord, NC after spending my first two Christmases in Spain and England (Air Force brat). The snow was deep and the perfect consistency for snowmen and snowballs, and my cousin Joe and I thrilled in playing with both in between warm-up trips inside. It was the first of what, now some 50 years later, has turned out to be extremely rare Christmas snows. It might have something to do with the fact that I’ve spent many years living in Texas, and not in the panhandle, where snow is common.

As a result of that first white Christmas, coupled with the rarity with which I’ve experienced them, the image of a snowman just says Christmas to me. It’s downright magical! You can imagine, then, what I was feeling as I ran across Dan + Shay’s new Christmas album last month, which includes the song, “Save the Snowman.” If you haven’t heard it, give it a quick listen below. If you’ve heard it before, you’ll want to hear it again!

Here’s the first verse and first time through the chorus:

I’ve got a friend, and he’s right outside my window
He’s got a hat and a scarf and a pipe and a carrot for his nose
I’ve got a friend, and he stops by every Christmas
He makes everybody smile for a while

But the weather’s getting warmer
The sun is on its way
And he won’t last much longer
So I just gotta say

Santa, can you save the snowman?
‘Cause I don’t wanna say goodbye
Even if it’s one more night, oh
Santa, can you make it snow, man?
‘Cause I could really use some help
I don’t wanna watch him melt, oh
No, I don’t need the gifts that are under the tree
All that I’m asking is please
Santa, can you save the snowman?
Save the snowman tonight
Tonight, tonight
Save the snowman tonight

The first time I heard that song I was stopped cold, as it were. Tears were running down my face and I started playing it over and over to figure out why! I’ve now listened to it dozens of times and I think I have gotten a hold on the reasons for my range of emotions when I hear it.

First, there’s the obvious. I picture the singer as speaking for a child who dreads the thought of his real-life Frosty the Snowman melting away. A white Christmas is a special Christmas, and the snow melting away is like Christmas melting away, in a sense. The magic leaves for an entire year, which means school starts up again soon and the season evaporates like that man of ice. In a way, then, it’s a child lamenting the end of the holiday season, and with it the end of family and friends gathering and the excitement that seems to permeate the very air we breathe during that special time.

There’s another, deeper strain of emotion running through the song, or at least it does when I listen to it. Maybe it’s because I’m an English professor and I’m all about subtext, but humor me for a minute.

This past Christmas represented a milestone in my family. My 13-year-old daughter officially became part of the Magic of Christmas, or perhaps The Secret of Santa. It happened at a much younger age for me and probably does for a lot of kids, but we had a special Santa who made that magic last much longer than might be normal. If you haven’t read my account of this special Santa, you can find it here. Learning the Secret of Santa is a rite of passage; it’s a symbol of part of the magic of childhood melting away. It’s a relentless process, one that we spend the rest of our lives trying to recapture, even if for only a few precious moments. Time marches on, burying the wonder of childhood in an avalanche of adult responsibilities and steadily removing the people who were some of the best parts of being a kid. As a parent, having lived through it myself, I hate seeing it happen to my own baby girl.

“Save the Snowman,” then, is not just about saving the temporary friend who sits just outside the house; it’s also about saving those precious, fleeting moments of childhood that will all too song be a distant memory. It’s about watching my daughter’s childhood slip away. It’s about knowing that I only have four more Christmases with her living at home with me, and after that who knows what Christmas will hold? I certainly don’t get to home to my parents’ house every Christmas. Life has gotten complicated and distances add up quickly. These moments slip away and then reside primarily in fond memories.

My favorite philosopher once said, “This is the way of things; the way of The Force.” Life goes on. It has to. I don’t want to deny my daughter her own adulthood and the many amazing things she wants to do. Far from it, I encourage her to dream BIG and chase those dreams with everything she’s got, just as my Dad, in particular, always encouraged me to do. I look forward to celebrating her wins and I’ll be there for the losses, too, for as long as I can be.

Still….that melting snowman in Dan + Shay’s song hits me like that first ray of sun hitting that icy friend. What I wouldn’t give to go back and build that first snowman one more time.

-B