Every year since 2005 , Robert’s Snow has fallen on behalf of Grace Lin’s husband, Robert Mercer, who died earlier this year of sarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue and bone.

Each year wooden snowflakes have been mailed to generous professional illustrators who paint them as they please and then donate them for auction. Past participants include Eric Carle, Emily Arnold McCully, David McPhail, Marjorie Priceman, Mark Teague, and Eric Rohmann. All proceeds benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Many of their snowflakes can be viewed in the book, Robert’s Snowflakes.

The snowflakes will be auctioned off to benefit Dana-Farber during three online auctions, on Nov. 19 – 23, Nov. 26 – 30 and Dec. 3 – 7. To preview the snowflakes online and to place a bid, go to www.robertssnow.com. Bidding is open to all. Robert’s Snow is in its third year and has already raised more than $200,000 for Dana-Farber.

This year’s snowflakes were recently on display at the Danforth Museum. Some photos from the show can be seen here and here.

Check out this year’s online auction and bid if you can, or just enjoy viewing the very many, very unique snowflake illustrations. It will give you warm fuzzies inside, I promise.