Whatever Happened to Parson Brown?

This morning I was taking my daughter to school when “Walking in a Winter Wonderland” came on the radio. I was surprised to hear, however, an interesting change in the lyrics.

I have always known:

In the meadow we can build a snowman
And pretend that he is Parson Brown
He’ll say are you married
We’ll say No Man
But you can do the job
When you’re in town

But what I heard this morning was:

In the meadow we can build a snowman,
And pretend that he’s a circus clown
We’ll have lots of fun with mister snowman,
Until the other kids knock him down.

Gone away is Parson Brown for a circus clown.

I’ll leave it right there, and let you formulate your own cultural analysis.