It may feel like you are the only one who comes down on Christmas morning or Christmas Eve to find a box filled with a seriously un-wearable item known to all and sundry as ugly Christmas sweaters. Fear not, for those across the pond in Europe from England through to Germany are facing the same ridiculous family portraits through the generations and believe it or not the story that helped to found some of our history behind ugly Christmas sweaters is not the same there. Interesting, what being separated by hundreds of kilometers does to history, this disparity in origin stories is what fueled the curiosity of us at Sir Holiday and led us to hunt down the origins of ugly Christmas sweaters in Europe.
During the 1980’s the people of Great Britain seemed to experience the first signs of their downfall; so many people became enthralled by the glamour and luster of television presenters that they had no idea when to avoid the trends that these TV show hosts were offering. Many hosts over the advent period and during Christmas festivities began to wear ugly Christmas sweaters while airing to the public, now if you’re wondering if the whole of England boycotted their shows the answer is no, instead they went out and bought a few. I know what you’re thinking, what madness is this, but the intense love affair with these jumpers was further enhanced by the guest appearances of famous singers during these television programs who would wear the tacky cardigans further enhancing their appeal to both the general public and to their diehard fans.
Later this trend of television show hosts influencing people to wear the brightly colored and highly decorated jumpers spread to Ireland where the host of The Late Late Show would wear a sweater for the Christmas Late Late Toy Show. As you can imagine anything and anyone who has anything to do with toys promoting anything, even a jersey is bound to get immediate love and purchasing power from the vast majority of children and their parents almost instantly. Moving on closer to the present, during the late 1990’s and early 2000’s Christmas sweaters became a prank party gift, something to make fun of and use as a comedic effect to start off a really insane party. All of the magic and love for ugly Christmas sweaters fell away or did they?
We can thank the resurgence of ugly Christmas sweaters to 2010, look they were probably made popular by a couple hipsters trying to turn against the crowd, however regardless of the why, a stockist on Amazon that sells these jumpers stated that they had over 600% growth on these jerseys in 2010. In 2012, the knitted creations got elevated to ‘must-have’ status and all of sudden shops such as Topman became retailers of sweaters that were once thought to be made especially for you by your grandmother. High fashion designer labels such as Burberry have also jumped on the trend and created their own versions of ugly Christmas sweaters.
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https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/11/28/10/36/christmas-220065_960_720.jpg
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