Frosty the
Snowman

The Hat That Started Everything — Since 1969

The Frosty the Snowman animated TV special first aired on CBS on December 7, 1969 — a Rankin/Bass production narrated by Jimmy Durante, featuring a snowman who comes to life when Karen places a magical silk top hat on his head. The special runs 25 minutes. It has been broadcast every December since, making it one of the longest-running holiday TV traditions in American history. The plot is simple and complete: Frosty comes alive, he and Karen become friends, the evil Professor Hinkle wants the hat back, Frosty and Karen flee to the North Pole, Frosty melts, Santa brings him back, and Frosty waves goodbye from Santa's sleigh with a promise that he'll be back on the first winter snow. He always is.

Hallmark's Frosty the Snowman Keepsake collection launched in 2007 with two debut entries — Let's Have Some Fun (QHC4037) and The Magic of Frosty (QXI7239, a Magic sound ornament) — and has added a new entry most years since, currently reaching nineteen ornaments across 2007 through 2025. The primary artist is Jim Kemme, whose sculpts capture the round, bright, cheerful visual style of the original Rankin/Bass animation with a warmth and detail that honors both the special's artistry and its fifty-plus years of childhood associations.

Thumpety Thump Thump — The Special That Never Ages

The Frosty the Snowman animated special is, at its core, a story about a friend you have to say goodbye to — a friend who is made of snow, who cannot stay, who will melt if the weather turns warm and who relies on the cold to exist. Frosty and Karen's friendship is formed in a single snowy afternoon and ends with a goodbye on Santa's sleigh, a promise that Frosty will return with the next winter snow. The special's emotional weight comes from that structure — the friendship that is inherently temporary, the joy that is inseparable from its own transience. Children understand this intuitively, which is why they cry at the ending and why adults who watched it as children still feel something specific when the Jimmy Durante narration begins.

Hallmark's nineteen-entry Keepsake collection has, over its run, covered the full emotional and narrative range of the special: the fun of the parade and the sleigh ride and the snowball fight, the magic of the hat and the moment of coming to life, the warmth of the friendship between Frosty and Karen, the goodbye scene with Santa, the tenderness of Frosty carrying Karen down the hill to keep her warm. The collection is not just decorative — it is a recollection, entry by entry, of a story that most viewers have watched at least a dozen times and remember in specific images as much as in narrative sequence. Each ornament is one of those images, preserved in miniature, hung on the tree for another December.

Nineteen ornaments. The 20th Frosty is still to come. He'll be back on the first winter snow.

Tips for the Collection

• 01
  The 2019 50th Anniversary entry is the collection's most historically resonant entry. Fifty years of the special, captured in a single ornament — artist Jim Kemme's sculpt marking the exact midpoint between the 1969 premiere and the tradition's indefinite future. For anyone who grew up with Frosty on CBS, this is the entry that marks a lifetime of December viewings in a single, giftable form.
• 02
  The 2007 Magic of Frosty (QXI7239) is the collection's most sought-after early entry. The debut Magic sound ornament — capturing the moment the hat makes Frosty come alive — is one of the collection's rarest entries and commands collector attention. If you have one, display it prominently; if you are seeking one, it is the founding Magic entry of the entire Frosty Keepsake collection.
• 03
  Display the narrative scenes in story order for the full special on the tree. Coming to life (2007 Magic of Frosty) → the parade and fun → the friendship with Karen → the 50th anniversary → the goodbye with Santa (2024) → Frosty carrying Karen (2025). Arranged in story sequence, the nineteen entries read as a condensed version of the special — the tree as the broadcast schedule.
• 04
  The 2024 Frosty and Santa and 2025 Frosty and Karen are the collection's most emotionally complete recent pair. The goodbye (2024) and the escape (2025) are the special's two most character-defining scenes — the one where Frosty sacrifices his safety to protect Karen, and the one where Santa makes the promise that brings him back. These two entries belong on adjacent branches.
• 05
  All 19 Frosty the Snowman ornaments, 2007 through 2025, are at Already Christmas. The complete nineteen-entry collection — from the 2007 debut through the 2025 Frosty and Karen — is in the collection. The 20th entry has not been announced. Frosty will be back.