What are ugly Christmas sweaters, and where did they come from? Say some ugly sweaters became a thing because of the 1980’s show called The Cosby Show. After two of the popular stars on that show wore them, they caught on. Later in the 2000s, they were revived when a party was thrown in Vancouver by Chris Boyd and Jordan Birch. They rethrew this party, again and again, and they turned into massive events sometimes even turning into charity events. Now Ugly Christmas sweater parties are thrown all over.

December 17 is technically National Ugly Sweater Day, but most people wear ugly Christmas sweaters just whenever they want throughout the holiday season. For example, our SGA organized an ugly sweater day a few weeks ago. The Science department also usually has a pretty good Ugly Christmas Sweater day.

To make ugly sweaters really fun this year, you can try some of these things. You can order from a website like Tipsy Elves, but those are kind of expensive. Maybe try thrift stores and even Wal-mart. If you really want your Ugly Christmas sweater to be ugly AND unique, just make it yourself. You don’t even have to make it from scratch, just get a plain sweater and some tinsel, bows, garland ornaments, foam stickers, and holiday pins. Put it all together and you’ll have an ugly Christmas sweater in no time. You can also work in trending imagery from the year if you want to up your ugly sweater game. Get the most embarrassing sweaters you can all find and draw straws. The loser has to wear the most embarrassing one at the party. Try having an ugly Christmas sweater contest, and you can even get some friends to judge.

Ugly Christmas sweaters have been popular for nearly three decades now, and I think it’s safe to assume that Ugly Christmas sweaters won’t be going anywhere for a long time.