The City of Kemi Gives the Snowman a Home

The Snowman, snögubbe, schneeman, snegovik, or lumiukko, is arguably the most well-known and well-loved snow character in the world. He has starred in movies; he features in comics, songs, advertisements, postcards, and on social media. Every winter he visits the yards of ordinary people as well as parks all over the world. Where there’s snow, there’s usually the Snowman as well.

The Snowman has magic. He is born, bred and shaped in a happy creation process. The Snowman is made by hand, and the Snowman is recyclable and organic. Small children and adults alike are drawn to the Snowman. You can make a Snowman whether you are from Kemi or from Corfu. The Snowman sits, stands and lies down – sometimes he even fools around. Almost always he smiles and shares his joy. The Snowman has many shapes and sizes, and each one of them is the correct one – the Snowman can be many things to different people.

The Snowman is everywhere, but have you ever wondered where the Snowman’s home is? Well, we don’t know either, nor does anyone we talked to. But surely the Snowman cannot be homeless, can he? We tried to find out where the Snowman’s homestead is, but we were not able to find the answer. The Santa Claus lives in Rovaniemi, that much is clear, we guess. But the Snowman seems to be looking for a home. Something must be done about this. So, we decided to give the snowan a home and a home town.

Snowman, welcome to Kemi, the city of snow and ice!

Come to think of it, what would be a more natural homestead for the Snowman than Kemi? We have snow and ice, we have the icebreaker Sampo and we can offer the year-round Snow Castle as a home for the Snowman. In the castle the Snowman can spend time with his snowball cousins Arttu and Terttu. He can spend the summers safe from the sun and heat, inside the year-round Snow Castle and wait for the winter and the cold weather to come. In the winter he can again bring happiness and play outside with children or anyone up for games. The Snowman can even pop out from the inside during the summer and take a quick peek at Kemi in the summer, for example by visiting the magnificent inner harbour.

The Snowman has eager plans to get to know the city. You might be able to see the Snowman in many places in Kemi in the weeks to come.