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Christmas jumper

Sweater with a Christmas or winter-style design

Field	Value
name	Christmas Jumper
image_file	Christmas Sweater.jpg
caption	An example of a 1980s Christmas jumper
type	jumper

A Christmas jumper (British English, Hiberno-English and Australian English) or Christmas sweater (North American English), also ugly sweater for their over-the-top designs, is a sweater themed with a Christmas or winter design, often worn during the festive season. These elaborately figured sweaters are more often knitted than crocheted. A more traditional approach is a roll neck (or "turtleneck") top-pulled garment. Embellishments such as tinsel, reindeer, or sparkles are considered to make such a sweater "ugly".

History

In the United Kingdom, Christmas jumpers became popular during the 1980s after a variety of television presenters such as Gyles Brandreth and Timmy Mallett began wearing them during the Christmas holidays. In particular, their popularity may be attributed to the influence of singers such as Andy Williams and Val Doonican, who appeared in these types of jumpers in their television Christmas specials. They are often seen as a hand-made present knitted by an elderly relative that are given as a Christmas present. with online retailer Amazon reporting an increase in sales of 600% in 2011, and the trend has been followed by a number of celebrities. Ugly Christmas Sweater Contests are held annually in the United States.

Christmas jumpers and T-shirts in a British supermarket, 2016

In 2012, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph described them as "this season's must have", with retailer Topman selling 34 different designs alone and reporting sales had increased 54% compared to 2011.

The charity Save the Children runs an annual Christmas Jumper Day each year in December using the slogan "Make the world better with a sweater". It encourages people to raise money for the charity by wearing their Christmas jumpers on a specific day. The New York Times reported in 2012 that a major venue for sweater sales are independent company websites, with ugly-sweater themed names.

Environmental charity Hubbub reported in 2019 that up to 95% of Christmas jumpers are made using plastic, and that two-fifths of them are worn only once. A spokeswoman for Hubbub described the Christmas jumper as "one of the worst examples of fast fashion" and urged people to "swap, buy second-hand or re-wear" rather than buy new.

References

Door, Marjan. (10 April 2025). "Knitting or crocheting? What’s right for you?".
"Just Whose Idea Was the Ugly Christmas Sweater?".
Sweeney, Ken. (29 November 2011). "Tubridy in stitches after Toy Show jumpers labelled a crime". Independent News & Media.
(14 December 2006). "Party through the pain". Independent News & Media.
Murphy, Claire. (23 November 2009). "Toy show jumper dilemma for Ryan". Independent News & Media.
Byrne, Gay. (13 February 2010). "The chameleon of Montrose". Irish Times Trust.
Hickman, Leo. (14 December 2012). "Show us your Christmas jumper – for Save the Children". The Guardian.
Epstein, Robert. (16 December 2012). "Bring Modern: Christmas jumpers". The Independent.
(19 December 2011). "The big Christmas jumper comeback". The Daily Mirror.
"SLIDESHOW: FOX13 News Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest". [[WHBQ-TV]].
Cumming, Ed. (13 December 2012). "How Christmas jumpers came in from the cold". The Daily Telegraph.
Gripper, Ann. (14 December 2012). "#XmasJumperDay: UK wears its Christmas jumpers in aid of Save The Children". The Daily Mirror.
Guy Trebay. (16 December 2012). "Bad Taste, All in Fun". [[The New York Times]].
(6 December 2019). "Most Christmas jumpers contain plastic, environmental charity warns". [[BBC]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

sweaters 1990s-fashion 1990s-fads-and-trends 2000s-fads-and-trends 2020s-fads-and-trends 2010s-fashion christmas-in-the-united-kingdom christmas-traditions

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