Have You Seen Frosty, Minnesota’s Extraordinary Giant Snowman?
Year after year a family in Faribault creates a MASSIVE snowman in their yard. Usually, you will see cute snowmen scattered throughout neighborhoods, but no snowman competes with this fella! The Hoisington family has been building a mega snowman in their front yard for more than a decade.
It all really started with the father, Andy Hoisington, but now his wife, their five kids, neighbors, staff of Faribault’s ice Arena, and Shattuck arena join in on creating Faribo Frosty, as he is called.
"My favorite part of building Frosty is spending time with my family and keeping this family tradition.” Andy Hoisington shares. “A close second is talking to all the people that stop and visit while we’re putting frosty up. It’s always good to visit with people from our community and beyond."
If you have ever built a snowman, you know how challenging it is sometimes. Trying to get the snow to compact together and keep them from turning into puddles. While this is true, I had the opportunity to talk with Andy Hoisington and he shares why he goes out every year to build Frosty.
“Knowing people enjoy frosty is what keeps us doing it. It’s a tremendous physical effort and every year we wonder if we should do it.”
However, as we all know how difficult and hard the past couple of years have been due to COVID, Hoisington explains why he felt he needed to spread some joy.
“In 2020 when we were in the midst of all the Covid closures people really seem to need frosty’s smile the most. Many people drove by taking pictures, some people just parked and stared. We heard from many people how much they needed to get out and see frosty. Many talked about how lonely and isolated they were and thanked us for building the snowman. That was really awesome to help people in such a simple way.”
Every year the community shares excitement and appreciation when Frosty makes his appearance whether that is in person or online (check out #faribofrosty).
This is such a great way to spread joy within the community and so I had to ask if Hoisington and his family ever do anything different to up Frosty’s antics. To which he responded, “each year we think we will build frosty a little larger but after we’ve been working a while the crew gradually comes to the conclusion that reaching close to 20 feet would be plenty enough.”
But hey a 20-foot Snowman, that’s still INSANELY cool and INSANELY tall! well this year Frosty is about 17.5 feet tall, but my mind is still blown! I do agree with Hoisington when he shares that while people have given great suggestions like adding lights to Frosty, he and his family “like frosty to be just a simple snowman because that’s plenty enough to make people smile.”
Hoisington shares with me that he “will keep building frosty as long as [he] can.”
“My sons, my son-in-law and my sister have been great at helping frosty reappear. We have had neighbors and friends stop by and help also. We couldn’t do it without the Faribault ice Arena staff and also Shattuck arena staff providing us the ice. Frosty would not appear without their help,” Hoisington exclaimed.
“Seeing people get such enjoyment out of frosty makes it all worth it. Hopefully, we can continue the tradition for years to come.”
If you would like to see Frosty, he is located on the corner of 1st ST. NW and 3rd Ave NW in Faribault! Feel free to take pictures and speak to the family if they are out there, as they are very kind and love to share.
Special thanks to Andy Hoisington for sharing with me about Frosty and thanks to those within the community who help every year. Can’t wait to see Frosty’s legacy grow!