If you have not been living under the rock, you must have come across several memes inspired by the 'Ugly Christmas Sweater' prank that popular actors Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal pulled on Ryan Reynolds.
For those uninitiated, the story goes something like this. Jackman, Reynolds' co-star in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, asked Reynolds to an ugly sweater party in 2018. But what he failed to mention was that the dress code only applied to Ryan.
His reaction on reaching the party in an ugly sweater and pranksters Jake and Hugh bursting into laughter had been captured in a frame, which has been making rounds on the internet ever since. But have you ever wondered, where did the tradition of wearing ugly sweaters on Christmas originate?
By ugly, you mean...?
Think of a woolly pullover, preferably green, red, or white. Now, imagine a riot of embellishments on it – candy canes, elves, reindeer, presents, Santa Clauses, tinsels, and more. There – you got your ugly Christmas sweater. To be precise, an ugly Christmas sweater is any Christmas-themed sweater that looks tacky and is considered to be in bad taste; like what the Dunphy clan wore in the first-ever Christmas episode of Modern Family.
Origin story
Although it is an integral part of the Christmas holidays now, it took the ugly sweater some time to claim its position in popular culture. It was in the 1950s when the Christmas holiday sweater became commercialised for the first time. Originally called 'jingle bell sweaters', they were not as decorated as today's sweaters. Despite popular television personalities of the time (like Val Doonican) wearing it, the ugly sweater found little popularity in the market.
True arrival
In the 80s, the ugly Christmas sweaters truly arrived. The yuletide culture started to grow around this time and some of the first Christmas-themed products began to roll out on a mass scale. The 'jingle bell sweaters' were already popular among dads. Thanks to the 'goofy dad' characters in popular sitcoms (like Clark Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation) emerging during the time, the ugly Christmas sweater became a funny-yet-endearing epitome of holiday cheer. They were far from being fashionable but used to be often spotted at office Christmas parties.
Fading popularity
However, this resurgence did not last long. During the 90s, the popularity of ugly sweaters was fading. By the turn of the new millennium, the newer generation had started looking down upon it as just another fashion faux pas of the past. Taking cues, films and shows also began featuring ugly sweaters in a way that would make you laugh but also feel embarrassed. Think of how the character Mark Darcy in the film Bridget Jones's Diary goes to greet Bridget at a party wearing an ugly Christmas sweater, almost petrifying her.
Millennial rebound
But in the early 2000s, 'ironic fashion' became a statement among millennials, which ruled fashion from runways to social media. This not only made this holiday staple become a thing again but fuelled celebrations around it – like ugly sweater Christmas parties!
According to the book Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book: The Definitive Guide to Getting Your Ugly On, the first ugly Christmas sweater party was held by two men in Vancouver, British Columbia. Initially intending to be a tongue-in-cheek addition to a festive get-together, these kinds of parties soon became a cultural phenomenon, propelled by nostalgia for the good-old, crazy times!
Snowballing since
From here, the trend of ugly sweaters only went uphill. From high-end retailers like Nordstrom to fast-fashion giants like Topshop – ugly Christmas sweaters ruled the shelves every year since. In 2007, Stella McCartney launched a polar bear-themed Christmas sweater. Labels like Givenchy and Dolce & Gabbana also followed the trend in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
A tipping point for the ugly sweater trend occurred in 2012. Christmas Jumper Day was established by the UK charity Save the Children as a fundraising initiative that urged participants to dress in their most embarrassing sweaters. In fact, the same Ryan Reynolds, who fuelled the popularity of ugly sweaters through his comic embarrassment used the sweater to generate a significant sum of money for charity. Last year, Reynolds raised over $850,000 for the Sick Kids Foundation by using his ugly sweater as a part of his Help Ryan Help SickKids campaign.
Funny isn't it – how Christmas ends up adding a touch of warmth and tenderness to every story?
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