People sometimes ask me where to start with Snowman Dayz. I tell them the truth: start with All the Snowmen . It's the complete record. Every incident we've managed to document, gathered in one place, in no particular order, because the residents of Snowman Falls do not schedule their decisions.
What the collection actually is
All the Snowmen is exactly what it sounds like. Not a theme. Not a season. Just the full account of a town going about its business with total confidence and mixed results. You'll find We're Not Lost in here (they were), and Working Great (it wasn't), and Choices Were Made, which is about as much as anyone in town would say on the record.
Some of it is autumn business. The Candy Sorting Committee convened again this year, and the minutes are sealed. Calculated Risk: Lighting The Jack-O'-Lantern went roughly the way the name suggests. Graveyard Shift Maintenance... somebody has to do it, and he does, without complaint and apparently without a flashlight. Count Chillula has been ready by the door since August.
Then there's the series the town refuses to retire. Worth The Melt covers the Ghost Pepper Challenge and the Chocolate Cauldron. Worth The Meltdown covers Backyard Movie Night, plus one resident filed simply under Committed. I've asked around about the official difference between a melt and a meltdown. Nobody in Snowman Falls considers it worth explaining, which tells you something about how often it comes up.
The shirts themselves
Every design in All the Snowmen is printed on a Comfort Color Premium T-Shirt. That part isn't a story. It's just the shirt. The incidents vary; the shirt doesn't. We take the documentation seriously even when the subjects don't.
Who it's for
Here's what I've noticed. Almost nobody browses All the Snowmen thinking about themselves. They scroll for a minute, stop on one, and say a name out loud ~ usually not their own. A husband who has never once been lost, according to him. A dad whose projects are all, officially, working great. A sister who lights things with more enthusiasm than planning. The shirt was already theirs. You're just making the introduction.
And if you know the person but can't settle on the incident, there's a Snowman Dayz Gift Card in the collection. Let them find themselves. They always do. It takes about a minute, and they never tell you which one it was.
Kate looked through the collection last week and said she recognized most of our neighbors and, in one case, me. I didn't ask which one. Some records are better left unconfirmed.
Walter was on the porch railing while she said it. He didn't cause anything. We just note where he was.
Written by Jack Mercer. Thanks for reading.