If you’re anything like me nowadays, you spend all your free time on Pinterest, oogling over how creative the world is while whining about how you too could be that creative but you don’t have time….mainly because you spend all of it on Pinterest. Vicious crafty cycle, I know. But have no fear… There is hope. Just go to the craft store with no plan and randomly buy $63 worth of various fabrics, buttons, yarn, felt and twine, so that next time you see something you want to make, maybe (just maybe) you’ll already have the goods you need. Except then you find a craft where you need glycerin. Then you’re screwed. (Not that I know from experience or anything.)
I been humming and hawning (is that the right phrase? Or is it heeing and hawing? Whatevs) about what craft I was making for Christmas gifts for at least a month when I stumbled on these ridiculously cute sock snowmen on this amazing blog. As soon as I looked into their cute button eyes, I knew that yep, they were the one. So with a quick trip to Target and a dip into Matt’s Mexican rice stash, I was in (snow) business. Can I also just mention that buying a large pack of tube socks, ten pairs of women’s argyle socks, rubber bands and five bags of rice make for a very amused cashier. I can only imagine what she was thinking.
As soon as I made one and showed Matt, he thought I should make one to resemble each person in the family I was giving to. So, that’s like….26 snowmen? Welp, here’s hoping I don’t run out of supplies!
What You’ll Need:
- Pair of calf-length tube socks
- Pair of cute patterned girls socks (on sale at Target for a dollar a pop!)
- Rice (or beans. Or lentils)
- Rubber bands
- Twine
- Buttons and/or felt for shirt/eyes/nose
Directions
1) Cut the foot off of one tube sock and toss. You will only need the top o’ the sock.
2) Turn the tube part of the sock inside out and wrap one end tight with a rubber band. Then, turn it right side out again and begin to fill with rice! (And begin to spill rice all over your carpet, if you have my hand-eye-coordination). Push rice down into the sock so it will stretch out and become a chubby little snowman body.
3) Once you have filled the sock to the almost-brim, wrap another rubber band around the top to secure.
4) Take out your patterned socks. Cut the heel and toe off of one sock, so you just have the middle. This will be the snowman’s shirt. Then take the other sock and cut off the heel. This will be the snowman’s hat.
5) Shimmy the “shirt” over his plump belly. Then, if you want to make a tradition snowman with three snow rolls, take a string of twine and tie a tight knot around the bottom of the sweater. Then, take another piece of twine and tie it around the top of the sweater.
I happen to like my snowman fat and happy, so I only tied twine around the top of the sweater. This gave them a cute rounded belly, and I could tell he thanked me for not being constricted by another piece of twine. I, myself have had one too many Christmas cookies already…so I feel ya on the “no tight waistline” look, Mr. Snowman.
6) For his hat, take another piece of twine and tie it near the top of the sock toe. This will make it look more like a hat and also cause it to fall cutely to the side.
7) Okay, now for his face! I didn’t have enough small buttons for all of the snowmen I was making, so I to whip out my hot glue gun and use black felt instead. I did the same for his lil’ carrot nose, using orange felt. I did have buttons for his sweater, too, but apparently I forgot, er, got too excited to photograph that I skipped this step!
How could I not get too excited…LOOK AT HOW CUTE HE IS!!
After you finish your first snowman and see how easy it is to make something so fat and adorable, it is hard not to make more. Even if I wasn’t planning on giving these as gifts, I still think I would have made a snowman army for myself. Come to think of it, it is going to be hard to give these guys up!
Good thing tube socks are still on sale.
I’m Anne Marie and this is my collection of vegetarian recipes, DIY projects, worldly and not-so-worldly travels plus adventures in marathons, southern living and mason jar obsessing. 
These are just too cute, thank you for sharing :)
Aw thanks Amy, I’m so glad you like them! :)
These are adorable. I know you posted it back in 2011, but thank you for sharing. I make baby snowball ornaments with toddler socks for hats.
Thank you so much Jennifer! They continue to be one of my very favorite crafts – I wind up making them every year as they are just too cute not to share/fill up all of my shelves, tables and countertops! And your baby snowball ornaments sound adorable – I have a few friends who just had babies or who are due right after the new year, so I would love to make something like that for them!
Hihihi ,so funny andere so true. Thank you for the idea.
Thanks So Much Anne Marie! These are adorable and a great project for all ages.
Thanks Ande! I have now made them every year since with everyone from my nieces to my friends – and in a few days, will be making them with my coworkers! It is a Christmas craft that cannot be beat. Let me know if you make them!
I found this the other day and made it just now. Super easy and fun!!!! I need more socks!!! I wanna do a whole village!
Dana I am so happy you found this post/my blog AND that you made a sock snowman right away! Aren’t they addicting to make? I considered ordering bulk packages of tube socks on Amazon before but was worried I’d see ads for tube socks on every other web page I went to from there on out! Might be worth it though. :) Let me know if you make that village! I would love to see all of them.
Each month my sister’s(there are six of us) and friends get together and do a craft. This month this is our craft! We love the little sweaters. We always title our craft days and this month is ugly sweater snowpeople day, because there is nothing more comfortable than a ugly sweater on a winter day! Can you estimate how much rice per snowman?
I love these adorable snowmen! Thanks so much for sharing!
Super cute! Did you glue the hat on?
My son & I just made 6 Sock Snowmen as Christmas gifts for his teachers & bus driver! We used yours as inspiration:)
I found socks at the Dollar Store. 2 pairs in one package for tube socks for $1 and then colorful children’s socks where 3 pairs for $1. The first batch I made completely with rice and that got a bit costly. So the next batch, I made with only 1/4 cup of rice. This is so they would be stable enough to stand on their own. I then stuff the rest of the sock with stuffing. I used buttons for the eyes and when I ran out, I used googly eyes.
Love these snowmen!!!! What a good idea to use old socks and create lovely Christmas ornaments!
Really cute. You have done an amazing job. You could easily sell those!
These are so adorable! Found them on Pinterest yesterday and made them today! Thanks for sharing!
Or instead of buying new, go raid the bin of random partnerless socks you’ve found in the laundry (I assume everyone has one of these, right??) I’m sure there’s a way to make this guy only using one colorful sock. It seems like a waste to toss almost an entire sock from each pair…
This is my new favorite ornament. Going to make this craft with some seniors!
Yay, thanks Beverly! Let me know how they turn out! :)