Those who may have missed out on their very own iconic snowman or santa figure, which greeted locals and visitors every winter for two decades, can find smaller versions of the snowmen in the form of a hat pin and fridge magnet, at the Cooma Visitors Centre.

Since 2004 the snowmen brought colour, cheer and a warm winter welcome to the Cooma community and travellers to the Snowy Monaro.

However, this year, the CBD of Cooma looked a little different as the Cooma Lions Club decided snowmen tear drop flags (thanks to South East Printing and a $7500 grant from Snowy Hydro) would be installed in Cooma to welcome winter as they are more manageable and easier to install.

For the ageing club members, large, bulky and heavy snowmen (and santas for the Christmas season) were becoming more difficult to place on and remove from the awnings (climbing ladders), transport and store.

Cooma Lion, Paul McGufficke, said 22 years ago between 70-80 santas and the same number of snowmen were cut out of plywood.

“We offered them to business owners around town and they supported it wholeheartedly,” Paul said.

“It was a huge effort by the business community as when added all up it’s more than $200,000 that was raised by those santas and snowmen and was put back into the community.

“Unfortunately due to OHS requirements and the ageing members of the Lions Club it was getting harder and harder to use the large santas and snowmen and we were unable to continue with them.”

In July, the snowmen were officially retired and sold to the public along with the santa figures. They were all snapped up quickly as they had developed quite a cult following over the years.

The legacy lives on though, not only through the Snowpeople on Tour Facebook page, but also the newly produced Cooma snowmen memorabilia.

The snowman hat pin and magnet have been created as a tribute to these happy characters who adorned the awnings of Cooma’s businesses for 20 years, and in recognition of the continued community service the Cooma Lions Club provides.

The Cooma Lions Club has readily endorsed this re-boot of the snowmen.

In the future there may also be miniature santas joining the snowmen merch, but this is yet to be confirmed.

One thing is certain, the snowmen merchandise is in demand, with visitors and locals, so a second batch has already been ordered from the manufacturers.

The idea to produce the memorabilia was Kelly Chang’s who works at the Cooma Visitors Centre. From Kelly’s conversations with the many visitors who called in to the centre, she discovered how important the snowmen were to the travellers.

“When kids and families come through Cooma every year they would count the snowmen as they arrive in town,” Kelly said.

“But this year they were saying where are the snowmen, the trip is not the same if we can’t count the snowmen.”

“We told them how the Cooma Lions Club members are getting too old to climb up and down ladders to the awnings to install them and take them down and would suggest they take a photo with the large snowman we have in the visitors centre, so they were all doing this.

“But then I had a light bulb moment and thought why don’t we get permission from the Lions Club members to come up with some souvenirs so people can keep these memories and take them home. Even the locals are coming in to get them.”

The products are Australian made and of high quality.

“We are thinking of changing the size to be slightly larger - but these have been a real hit so far,” Kelly said.