Last week’s snowstorm inspired Emmanuel Matsos to create a 7-foot-tall firefighter snowman in his Fallston front yard, continuing a 40-year tradition of snow sculpting.

For Matsos, a retired packaging manufacturer, every snowfall brings with it a blank canvas for his next creation. He has spent decades sculpting snow into characters for his children, grandchildren and the surrounding community to enjoy. The 69-year-old has formed snow into Minions, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman, to name a few.

“Sometimes I make snowmen, and people stop and look at them and blow their horns all the time, but this year I thought this snowman needs an identity,” Matsos said. “I’d like to make the identity the Fallston fireman.”

Matsos used those words as his pitch to firefighters Monday afternoon at the neighboring Fallston Volunteer Fire and Ambulance Company. He had already erected the 7-foot snowman in his yard, “all white and faceless, without anything and just standing there like a robot,” he said. So Matsos marched through the snow and asked the firefighters to donate a fire hat and suspenders for the snow-fireman.

Firefighter Brian Schreiber surrendered a helmet from a retired assistant chief and a pair of grey and red suspenders. Matsos stuck on the finishing touches: a mustache, buttons and American flags in the snowman’s hands and around its feet.

Chief Daniel McKinney said that the majority of department personnel were responding to a fire in Jarrettsville when Matsos sent a photo of the finished snowman. He immediately shared the photo in text message group chats and sent it to those on the department’s mailing list.

“To see that picture while coming back from a call, they felt amazing,” McKinney said. “It’s a little act like that that can just reinvest in our personnel and show them that the community is thinking about them 24/7.”

Matsos said he never went to school for sculpting or had any formal training: “I guess it’s just an artistic talent that I’m gifted with,” he said, noting that he also works with sand during family trips to the beach.

For Matsos, sculpting has never been about creating art, “it’s about family, it becomes a family event.” His sons, Michael and Bill, have helped continue the tradition for more than 40 years. Bill lives next door, and his two children, Alexios, 6, and Zinovia, 3, spent their snow day Monday helping their grandfather construct the snowman.

Matsos’ other son, Michael Matsos, lives in Lutherville, but got help from his father when he wanted to build his first snowman after he and his wife moved several years ago. “He was an unknown, a new guy. So, when it snowed, I went up there and said, ‘Michael, let’s make a snowman and put it right here so everyone could see it,’” Matsos said.

Michael’s neighbors would stop to take photos of his yard or give a thumbs up as they passed by, which his father believes helped him feel welcome in the new neighborhood.

Shena Matsos, Emmanuel’s daughter-in-law, said cars frequently honked when they passed the towering, 7-foot firefighter on Carrs Mill Road last week. The snowman also faces Fallston High School and has attracted the attention of students and faculty.

“It’s awesome, and it just speaks to the whole Fallston community,” said Principal Joseph Collins.

And while the attention and recognition from the surrounding community “makes [him] happy” and is “cool, too,” Matsos insisted that the purpose of his sculptures, either in the snow of Fallston or sands of Ocean City, are to please his family.

“My grandkids, it gives them joy, and this way I’ll be remembered as the fun granddad,” he said.

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