Skipping Christmas

For Luther, Frosty represents everything that is wrong with the way he has been celebrating Christmas: community pressure, conformity, inconvenience, and inefficiency (putting Frosty up, taking him down, storing him all year). Prior to the “community spirit” competition, Luther thought the tradition was harmless and amusing. It was only after the competition began that he began to dislike the new tradition. What was once a symbol of communal celebration has become, for Luther, a symbol of antagonistic competition that destroys social ties instead of strengthening them. Even so, the rest of Hemlock Street views Frosty as a symbol of social cohesion. When Luther refuses to participate in the tradition, he violates that social cohesion, creating conflict in the community.

It takes two people to mount Frosty on the roof, so Frosty also represents dependency on others as well as peer pressure. Luther initially rejects this dependency, refusing to ask his neighbors for help when Blair announces she’s coming home and expects to see Frosty on the roof. However, his attempts to mount Frosty by himself go disastrously wrong, proving that self-reliance is not always the answer. In spite of his differences with his neighbors, they come together to rescue him, and Luther, moved by their support, must admit that community can also be a force for good.