Drivers travelling along a rural back road outside of Timmins, Ont., are doing double-takes over an unusual holiday greeting, a friendly wave from a giant snowman that stands nearly six metres tall wearing a 45-gallon drum as a top hat.

Michel Campeau built the massive frosty-like figure with his family, a labour of love that required two weeks of construction and borrowed snow from neighbours’ yards.

“Everybody loves it,” he told CTV Northern Ontario. “Every year I always make it a little bit bigger and a little bit bigger. Two years ago we did a 15-and-a-half-foot snowman. This year I had to challenge myself.”

Everything about Campeau’s creation is supersized. The snowman’s scarf is nine metres long. The nose is made from a piece of lumber, since an appropriately sized carrot was impossible to come by.

Campeau’s daughter Sarah explains that the project was fun for the whole family, but also taught her children a valuable lesson.

“It’s showing my kids that you can accomplish anything you want to if you put your mind to it,” she said. “It’s teaching them to help get things done.”

Campeau says watching the children’s faces light up as they pass his house on the bus ride to school makes his hard work feel worthwhile.

“The kids are just like ‘wow,’ so it’s fun. It’s for the kids,” he said.

Sarah expects her dad will continue to outdo himself in the years to come.

The current Guinness World Record for the tallest snowman is 37.21 metres.

With a report from CTV Northern Ontario’s Jessica Gosselin