Mr. Bingle

Green and red text on a white background.

Mr. Bingle is a Christmas “snow doll” character that was created when Emilie Alline – a window display designer for the New Orleans Department store Maison Blanche – sought holiday inspiration from Chicago storefront windows in 1947. Resembling a snowman with an ice cream hat and holly leaf wings, Mr. Bingle (whose initials match those of the store he was born in) has since become a Christmas icon in New Orleans. His popularity grew throughout the 1950s as part of the store's annual holiday puppet shows and he was granted his own jingle when being portrayed in store commercials throughout the 1960s. In the late 1980s, Maison Blanche commissioned a large fiberglass statue of Mr. Bingle which would look over Canal Street every Christmas, until the store was sold to the Dillard's chain in 1997. The statue can still be seen every year as part of City Park's Christmas celebration in its home of New Orleans.