A Long Yarn: The History of the Ugly Christmas Sweater Tradition

Figure 1: Examples of "Jingle Bell Sweaters" (Source: University of Fashion)

The holiday season is meant to be a period of merriment and fun, but it can also be quite stressful.  The search for the perfect gift, hosting family and friends for meals and events, the reduction in natural light and the rise of seasonal affective disorder, and more all affect people’s moods and attitudes about the holidays.  This is one of the primary reasons why the Ugly Christmas Sweater tradition started in the early 2000s and quickly became part of the mainstay of contemporary holiday traditions.  Very few people, however, realize that this trend predates the current century, which will be explored further in this blog post.

 

After decades of brutal and bloody conflicts (e.g., the American Civil War, World War I, World War II) Americans were ready to embrace a different way of life, leading to a variety of cultural changes.  One of the resulting changes was the commercialization of the Christmas holiday, which began in the 1950s.  Borrowing from the Norwegian sweater fashions of the 1930s that drew upon natural motifs (e.g., stag, tree, and star motifs) American retailers sold manufactured “Jingle Bell Sweaters” to help shoppers embrace the holidays (Figure 1).  Unfortunately, shoppers were not really buying into the trend, although various television personalities did.  The “Jingle Bell Sweater” trend quickly faded into obscurity.

 

It was resurrected again in the 1980s due to popular culture phenomena, specifically the rise of the absurd Christmas movies.  “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” featured its main characters donning, gifting, or receiving any number of absurd Christmas sweaters as they navigated the pitfalls of a holiday season continually going bad.  As a result, consumers briefly bought into the fashion trend, seeking out their own “ugly” Christmas sweaters to match their favorite movie characters and recreate the holiday flair they watched on their screens (Figure 2).  By the 1990s as cultural preferences once again changed the fashion also shifted and the “ugly” Christmas sweater was once again abandoned. 

Figure 2: "Ugly" Christmas Sweaters of the 1980s (Source: University of Fashion)

The trend made a comeback in the early 2000s, yet again thanks to a movie.  This time it was the romantic comedy “Bridget Jones’s Diary.”  Bridget’s vexing paramour wore a “hideous” reindeer sweater, which endeared him to both Bridget and the audience alike.  A year later in Vancouver, British Columbia, two friends hosted the first recorded “Ugly Christmas Sweater” themed party.  They encouraged attendees to raid their closets, explore vintage and secondhand clothing stores, or create their own garish designs to embrace the ridiculousness of bad fashion.  The purpose of this was not specifically to make fun of bad fashion but to bring some lighthearted humor to the stressful holiday season. 

 

People began embracing the “ugly” Christmas sweater idea, and it quickly became not just a game but a way of life to locate the “ugliest” Christmas sweater.  Vintage and secondhand stores began marketing their “ugly” Christmas sweaters.  Resellers began selling them at high prices.  People created their own monstrosities, all in the hopes of capturing the title of having the “ugliest Christmas sweater”.  Manufacturers began to create their own gaudy designs, complete with tinsel, sequins, pom poms, bells, and more.  Not to be outdone, major fashion houses, like Dolce and Gabbana and Givenchy, released their own lines of high fashion “ugly” Christmas designs.  Most pop culture experts claim that the event that sealed the deal on the “ugly” Christmas sweater tradition, however, was a fundraiser held in 2012, which normalized the trend. 

 

For almost 25 years now the trend has not abruptly ended as it had in the past, demonstrating that people not only love but need some levity during the holiday season.  This explains the increased popularity in other stress-relieving holiday activities, such as the White Elephant Gift Exchange.  This suggests that this trend may die down once people feel they no longer need a stress relieving activity to stomach the holidays, but that prediction is yet to be realized.  Perhaps it will be in the future, but in the meantime, be sure to “don your ugly apparel” and embrace the new norms of the holiday season.

 

Works Cited

Cerdio, Fernanda. "The Beautiful Story Of How The Ugly Sweater Became a Thing at Christmas." 24 December 2024. CULTURA COLECTIVA. 17 October 2025.

Cerini, Marianna. "A cozy history of the ugly Christmas sweater." CNN Style 18 December 2024.

Tatter. "History of the Ugly Christmas Sweater." 25 December 2023. Tatter. 17 October 2025.