Carrot Noses

Some things in life approach universal constants. For example, a snowman will almost certainly have two black eyes made of coal or buttons, a dotted smile and a long, orange carrot for a nose. But has this always been so, and who was the first person to wedge a carrot in the middle of a snowman’s face?

It isn’t too absurd to suppose that as long as humans have lived in snowy climates, they made snowmen. The earliest depiction of a snowman was inked by a 14th century monk in the margins of a prayer book. A lumpy figure sits on a bench with an ample snowy posterior positioned towards a glowing hot fire. Importantly, the Medieval snowman has a long nose of snow, not produce.

It was not uncommon for snowmen of old to sport long, pointy noses. As anthropomorphized depictions of winter, snowmen were supposed to appear harsh and fierce. Snow and icicles likely served as noses for years. However, the first documented use of a carrot for a snowman’s nose wasn’t until 1943. The German animated film “Der Schneeman”  was created by Horst von Möllendorff, a German cartoonist who was “drafted” into the Nazi regime’s animation industry. The film, which was thankfully not propagandistic, featured a naive, lovable snowman, whose vegetable nose was the coveted prize of every rabbit in the countryside. Viewers so loved the little snowman, that they started copying his design.

But German cartoonists are only one half of the story. Much credit ought to be given to the Dutch, who successfully bred stable, palatable orange carrots. Carrots were first domesticated 5,000 years ago in the Iranian Plateau and then spread into Europe through trade and military conquests. Originally, carrots were purple or yellow. In the 17th century, Dutch breeders took advantage of natural mutations in yellow carrots to develop and propagate stable orange lines. Without their ingenuity, all our snowmen would have anemic yellow or frost-bitten purple noses.

Brian Rutter, PhD, is the cofounder of Hundredfold Video and plant biologist working for 2Blades at the University of Minnesota. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive our “Things About Things – Odd Facts About Plants” and video production tips in your inbox every month!

Works Cited:

Banga, O. "The development of the original European carrot material." Euphytica 6 (1957): 64-76.

Burgan, R. “Winter’s effigies: the deviant history of the snowman.” atlasobscura.com, 17 Dec. 2014, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/winters-effigies-the-deviant-history-of-the-snowman. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.

Carrot, Wild. "Carrot: history and iconography." Chronica 51, no. 2 (2011): 13.

Marsh, B. “Why do snowmen have carrot noses?” thefactsite.com, 8 April 2022, https://www.thefactsite.com/why-snowmen-have-carrot-noses/. Accessed 29 Nov. 2023.