This might be harvest season, but it’s never too early to think snow – snow people, that is.

Lyla Snover, who has spent the past few years, along with her husband, Phil, creating many of the snow people that go on display throughout Coupeville each holiday season, is being honored this year by the Coupeville Historic Waterfront Association for her contribution to the community.

The group’s annual “Christmas in Coupeville” sweatshirt and apron feature a sketch of a great blue heron wearing a beret, holding a paintbrush and preparing to paint a snowman. This year’s design was unveiled earlier this month, when a sweatshirt was presented to Snover at her Coupeville garage, which doubles as the town’s official snow people workshop.

“This year we decided to pay homage to Lyla as a thank you for her effort all these years,” said Chuck Poust, CWHA member and owner of Windjammer Gallery on Front Street.

“To be honored with a sweatshirt is really, really special,” Snover said.

The Coupeville snow people got started shortly after Nancy Conard became mayor, Snover said.

“It started at the Christmas parade,” she recalled. “(Conard) wore a snowman costume and has worn it every year since then. The next year some of the town’s maintenance crew made two plywood snowmen. One said, ‘Welcome to Coupeville,’ and the other said, ’Bye.’”

Snover said she volunteered her husband’s services cutting out more plywood snow-people shapes after Conard mentioned that she thought it would be fun to have even more of them to put on display around town.

“Phil cut out maybe 10 the first year and several people helped paint them,” she said. “We were retired by then, so we just kind of started.”

The town pays for the plywood, Phil Snover uses his Skilsaw to cut out the shapes and Lyla and fellow snow-people fans paint them.

At last count, Snover said she had 84 large snow people in her garage, about 40 mid-size figures and a couple of dozen small snow people. Each year they add to the collection. This year there are 16 new snow people, many of whom have been painted to represent different service clubs, such as the Lions Club and Hearts and Hammers. Some draw attention to local businesses, including one of the new ones painted this year that shows a snowman reading a copy of The Whidbey Examiner with the front-page headline, “Invasion!” and a picture of a crowd of invading snow people.

“We did whatever we could think of for people that did things for the town,” Snover said. “Different people have come and painted them every year so we have a lot of different styles.”

As the snow people project has evolved, so has Snover’s technique. Over the years she has painted bears and even a Mickey Mouse. Her favorite snow people are the small ones that appear to be waving at passing motorists, although she admits she enjoys all of them.

“I just like looking at them,” Snover said. “I go out and talk to them.”

What used to be a seasonal hobby has become more of a full-time passion for Snover, who keeps the snow peeps stored in her garage.

“It’s easier to work on them all year ’round and to freshen them up,” she said. “They get muddy and dirty – and sometimes vandalized.”

One of the hardest things, she said, is motivating certain people to get going on the project each year.

“It’s hard to get Phil to cut them out. That’s what slows us down,” Snover said with a laugh.

The snow people go on display just before the annual Greening of Coupeville parade, which takes place the evening of the first Saturday in December.

Over the years, the snow people have become a small-town tradition that has meaning to many.

“That’s part of the fun of them,” said Poust, who has helped with painting the past couple of years.

It’s a lot of work, but Snover said she enjoys every minute of it.

“This is my home. I love Coupeville,” Snover said. “It’s really a thrill to see all the snowmen along the road.”

Learn more

Sales of “Christmas in Coupeville” sweatshirts

and aprons benefit the Coupeville Historic Waterfront Association, which promotes preservation of the historic downtown. Sweatshirts are $25; aprons are $20. Both are available at Windjammer Gallery, 22 Front St., and the Coupeville Chamber of Commerce,  902 N.W. Alexander St., Coupeville.