Snow Baby

A Snow Baby (or Snowbaby) is a small figurine, usually of a child, that depicts some aspect of the Christmas holidays or of winter sports.

Snow Babies were created as reusable cake toppers in the 1890s by Johann Moll, a German confectioner, based on early nineteenth-century sugar dolls used as Christmas decorations.

[1][2] The release of the Snow Baby figurines coincided with the birth of Admiral Robert Peary's daughter in Greenland while he was on an expedition to the North Pole in 1893.

[1][4][5] German manufacturing of Snow Babies stopped again at the start of World War II, and American demand for the product dropped.

[1][2][6] Before World War I, Snow Babies ranged from 5 to 7 inches in size and depicted children participating in winter activities like skiing, ice skating, and sledding.

Models in more varied poses were made, including children singing Christmas carols, riding polar bears, and building snowmen.