My Snow Buddies collection began roughly 15 years ago with just a few pieces. Over the years, I found more at local yard sales and thrift shops, and my parents became some of my best Snow Buddies hunters. They found many of the pieces that became part of my collection. I was also given several Snow Buddies that had belonged to my husband's grandmother after she passed away.
For many years, I simply enjoyed collecting them whenever I happened to find one.
Then, in 2026, my collection took an unexpected and very personal turn.
My father passed away in February. While spending time with his side of the family afterward, I was talking with his sister, my Aunt Lisette, about my Snow Buddies collection. She has a large Santa collection of her own and mentioned something I had never known: my Aunt Giselle, who sadly passed away just four weeks after my father, had been a Snow Buddies collector too.
I was immediately intrigued. I had been collecting Snow Buddies for years and had no idea that my Aunt Giselle had been collecting them as well. I was given the opportunity to obtain Aunt Giselle's Snow Buddies collection.
Suddenly, the collection I had been slowly building for years had grown tremendously.
That was when my curiosity really took over.
I wanted to document everything I had, determine exactly what had been produced, and figure out which pieces were still missing from my collection. What started as an inventory project quickly became something much bigger.
I began searching old websites, archived pages, catalogs, copyright records, retailer information, photographs, advertisements, and anything else I could find that might help piece together the history of Snow Buddies and The Encore Group.
Why I Created This Archive
Sonya's Snow Buddies was created not only to document my personal collection, but to build a useful reference for other collectors.
My goal is to identify and document as many Snow Buddies pieces as possible, including their item numbers, names, photographs, and other information that may otherwise become harder to find as the years pass.
There are still pieces to identify, information to uncover, and plenty of mysteries left to solve.
If you collected Snow Buddies, sold them in your store, worked with The Encore Group, have old catalogs or photographs, or simply know something that isn't documented here, I'd love to hear from you.
Every little piece of information can help preserve another part of the Snow Buddies story. ❄️