How to Choose Your Ugly Christmas Sweater for the

Holidays
By: Joseph Rowe

The ugly Christmas sweater has become a ubiquitous fashion trend during the month of

December. Along with eggnog and hot chocolate, this hideous clothing article has become a

part of the American Christmas spirit. You might be ugly year around, but your sweater should

only be ugly one month of the year.

Ugly Christmas sweaters were the first pop culture meme to became normalized. These

memes were once laughed at nationally when first popularized around the 70’s and 80’s. The

trend took a dive in the late 90’s following the popular Chevy Chase film National Lampoon’s

Christmas Vacation. This film turned these sweaters as an old people trend rather than a

holiday trend and therefore began its downfall. The Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book

describes how ugly Christmas sweater parties sparked again in 2002 and continues today. The

city of Vancouver claims to be the birthplace of the first official ugly sweater party in 2002

according to Thoughco.com. Every year, The Original Ugly Christmas Sweater Party is held at

the Commodore Ballroom in Vancouver, where an Ugly Sweater is the staple of everyone’s

outfit. According to the author of The Original Ugly Christmas Sweater Party, Adam Paulson,

Chris Boyd and Jordan Birch, the co-founders of the Commodore's annual ugly sweater party,

have even trademarked the word phrase "ugly Christmas sweater" and "ugly Christmas sweater
party." The party is a benefit, raising money in support of the Make A Wish Foundation of

Canada, which grant wishes for children with life-threatening illnesses.

Early Ugly Sweater Pioneers

Now, in the month of December, ugly Christmas sweaters are sold EVERYWHERE. Crazy

fair isle knitting with a mixture of green, red, gold, and white with the addition of bells, garland,

or even bows have gone from gaudy and tasteless to a sort of hipster trend in the 21 st century.

Hideous holiday versions of sweaters only began to sprout up in the last several decades. Bill

Cosby was a modern-day pioneer of the trend and is revered as an ugly sweater icon. In his role

as Cliff Huxtable on his eponymous ‘80s sitcom, The Cosby Show, the family man’s uniform of

choice was a wooly pullover with questionable color mixing and patterns. Bill introduced this

fashion trend to modern 1980s families.

Biggie Smalls revolutionized ugly sweaters and introduced them to the hip hop

community. Their sweater taste was very similar with their wild color combinations, but Biggie

popularized a particular name brand (Coogi) which echoed through pop culture and actually

made this a fashion trend as opposed to Bill Cosby, who made ugly sweaters a dad or family

man clothing item.

Where to Find?
Now the trend continues to rise in an ironic way due to ugly sweaters being so lurid AND so

widely available. These sort of vintage style sweaters can be found anywhere from thrift stores
to Goodwill to popular department stores. Most stores have very good quality ugly Christmas

sweaters where you can buy in bulk so you and your family can all match together. Although,

holidays are often fraught with anxiety about the financial drain of gift-giving and the copious

amounts of family interaction, so what better way to enjoy a holiday with your friends and

family than to go thrifting for sweaters and create your unique Christmas sweater. This event is

just as traditional as Christmas dinner or opening Christmas presents in the morning in my

household.

1. Thrift a sweater
The best way to construct the loudest holiday sweater from scratch is to find the perfect

base sweater. Thrift stores usually have knit sweater sections, and this is the perfect place to

find the base of your sweater. Keeping the good old green red and white Christmas tradition

going, find a sweater that screams CHRISTMAS in your face. Fair isle knitting sweaters are really

the holy grail for Christmas sweater bases. You might want to buy multiple since there is going

to be more than one ugly Christmas sweater party during the holidays.

2. Pick your accessories

Accessories is what will turn heads and have more people gravitate towards you. This is the

inly time of the year where your wardrobe can be tacky so why not go all out and embrace it.

The best places to get sweater accessories is Michael’s. Michael’s has cloth, bells, garland, and

as much holiday décor as your eye can see. Some sweaters even feature ornaments and

electronic lights.
 3. Pick your Design
Once you have all your accessories and your sweaters picked out you want to lay them on

the floor, as if you were an artist looking at a blank canvas and your paint brushes next to it. As

a millennial, I like to spark my creativity by using Pinterest to get the ugly sweater designs

going. Use your cloth to cut out iconic Christmas things, such as reindeers, Christmas trees,

snowmen, etc. Add the bells to let everyone at the ugly Christmas sweater party hear you when

you walk in. The garland really brings the ugly to the sweater, so if you want to make a few

people gag at the gaudiness of your sweater then be sure to add the garland. Lights on a

Christmas sweater are only for the ugly Christmas sweater veterans so if you really want

everyone to know you’ve been apart of this trend for a while then add those bright lights.

4. Embrace your ugly

Now that you have your one of a kind Christmas sweater, go to parties! Let everyone see

what you created. This is one piece of art that people expect to be ugly, so the uglier the better.

If you have people doing a double take, it could be because your sweater is really good or really

ugly. The fine line between ugly and fashionable is blurred during the month of December and

ONLY during December. Whether you have people complimenting your art or covering their

eyes to avoid seeing your art, you WIN!

Cite:
https://fashionista.com/2013/07/bill-cosby-is-holding-a-sweater-tournament-so-we-talked-to-

the-guy-who-designed-them

http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12/22/a-brief-history-of-the-ugly-christmas-sweater/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/ugly-holiday-sweater-parties-the-

origin-of-the-seasons-sarcastic-trend/2011/11/29/gIQAzl3g9N_blog.html

https://www.tipsyelves.com/blog/history-of-the-ugly-sweater-trend/

Bellis, Mary. "History of the Ugly Christmas Sweater." ThoughtCo, Jun. 12, 2019,

thoughtco.com/the-ugly-christmas-sweater-1992591.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book: The Definitive Guide to Getting Your Ugly On

Book by Adam Paulson