Crafty Somerset mom builds Jughead, a 9-foot Christmas wonder: Here's where to see him.

Dan Medeiros, The Herald News
·2 min read

SOMERSET — If you’re in the mood for a tour of local Christmas lights and displays, you have a new must-see stop: Somerset’s Jughead the snowman.

Jughead is the creation of Melissa Morgado of 35 Pierce Lane, just off Main Street, a massive snowman head complete with carrot nose, top hat and corncob pipe. She crafted the giant snowman head using almost 800 empty plastic milk and water gallon jugs, glue, wire — and a ton of patience.

At night, Jughead is lit from within like a 9-foot beacon of Christmas joy. Morgado wrote on Facebook that photos have gone viral.

“He has reached over a million people,” Morgado posted on Facebook. “I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”

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Jughead, a massive 9-foot snowman head made of nearly 800 empty gallon jugs, stands outside the house of Melissa Morgado of Somerset.
Jughead, a massive 9-foot snowman head made of nearly 800 empty gallon jugs, stands outside the house of Melissa Morgado of Somerset.

Learning from last year's attempt to make Christmas decor even better

Last year, the crafty Somerset mom made her first attempt at building Jughead, inspired by images on Pinterest of igloos built out of empty gallon containers. After having gathered hundreds of jugs through community donations, Morgado got her hot glue gun ready.

But just before it could be completed, a winter storm wrecked her work.

This year, Jughead 2.0 has been strongly reinforced against wind and weather. He’s braced from the inside with wood “donated by a stranger that I'll call my new friend.”

“We're already seeing that there’s some issues,” Morgado said in a video posted Wednesday, as gale-force winds and rain swept through the SouthCoast, showing a neighbor’s tree downed in the road.

Jughead, however, was solid as a rock.

“He’s good,” she said. “Fingers crossed he stays up.”

Jughead, a massive 9-foot snowman head made of nearly 800 empty gallon jugs, stands outside the house of Melissa Morgado of Somerset.
Jughead, a massive 9-foot snowman head made of nearly 800 empty gallon jugs, stands outside the house of Melissa Morgado of Somerset.

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How to support Somerset's Jughead

Jughead’s permanent address is on the lawn outside the Morgado family’s house, where anyone who loves Christmas is welcome to take a peek (and a selfie). But for those who want to support Morgado’s work more directly, she's opened up an online store with Jughead merch.

Her Jugheads Momma shop on Printify has pillows, keyrings, ornaments, mugs — even Christmas wrapping paper. She also sells T-shirts on Bonfire.

“The town pitched in and made it happen for me,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “I got to see some kids take their picture with him last night and I thought my heart would burst. I hope that they have those memories for years to come.”

Dan Medeiros can be reached at dmedeiros@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Somerset woman builds giant Christmas snowman out of milk jugs