Staff Writer
 |
| Senior Emma O'Connell |
But where did this odd
practice come from? Most people think that it can be traced back to the
mid-1980s and The Cosby Show and National Lampoon’s Christmas
Vacation. In the 1990s, holiday versions became popular among adults.
Around 2001, young adults organized the first “ugly Christmas sweater
party”, with the intention of making fun of the terrible sweaters that their
parents love.
It is pretty easy to
identify a so-called “ugly Christmas sweater.” According to TIME magazine,
“Telltale signs of the ugly sweater are liberal use of red and green, comically
large depictions of snowmen, reindeer, and Christmas trees, and any sort of
pom-pom or felt applique.”
Adam Paulson, one of the
men behind UglyChristmasSweaterParty.com, says there is a good reason for the
desire to dress up in such hideous creations. He told ABC News, “From talking
to people, I think the consensus is that the majority of people spend 364 days
out of the year worrying about what they look like. [The sweater party] gives
them one night to look totally stupid, to feel like they fit in, no matter what
they wear. All inhibitions are gone.”
