I know exactly what you are talking about and can even picture it in my mind. As I remember, the legs were 2 X 4's attached to a larger piece of wood for the body and the head was cut out of wood and painted. Smaller blocks of wood were nailed to the ends of the two 2 X 4 legs to fit into the shoes, which were then nailed on from the bottom of the shoes up into those little blocks.

Donnajean....I'm searching to see if I can find a picture of the one I remember and am pretty sure is the same one that you have in mind, but...I found something different that is really darling. Check out these patterns for snowmen elfs.

http://www.sparklesnspirit.com/catalog_snelfs.html