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Because ugly sweaters need love too

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Last year I wrote this post to serve as a cautionary holiday tale. There is nothing like the Christmas season that will make some folks want to put on some apparel with blinking lights and various animals wearing Santa hats.

As I did my extensive research for that post, I realized that people all over the country are hosting Christmas parties with the specific intent of encouraging their friends to wear the ugliest Christmas sweater they can find. And I thought to myself, “Well that sounds dreadful. How can I be a part of this phenomenon?”

Apparently I hang out with a circle of friends that are terribly uncreative and don’t drink enough alcohol to make it through the evening in a hideous sweater made of some kind of synthetic knit.

And since the thought of having to make a big batch of mini-quiches and wassail for a real life party is more than I want to deal with this holiday season, I decided to create Big Mama’s First Annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest.

There will even be prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

I know.

1st prize will be an original piece of jewelry from Lisa Leonard Designs.

2nd prize will be a $25.00 gift certificate from CWDKids.

3rd prize will be a $15.00 gift certificate to Amazon.

However, you have to provide your own eggnog.

To enter the contest you will need to send me a photo of the ugliest Christmas sweater you can find. Bonus points if it’s already hanging in your closet. Not really, but it would be impressive.

Here are the rules:

1. You have between now and December 17th to email your entries to [email protected]. I will announce the winners along with color commentary on Friday, December 19th.

It will be like our very own Ugly Christmas Sweater party but without a keg of Miller Lite and drunk fraternity boys.

2. You don’t have to actually purchase the ugly sweater. Feel free to take a picture of one that you find at your local Salvation Army, department store, or your father-in-law’s closet. I would love to see the sweaters actually modeled on a person, but it’s not a requirement.

3. Please don’t take pictures of unknowing shoppers all decked out in Christmas hideousness without their permission. However, I’m thinking nothing would be more potentially awkward than asking a stranger if you can take their photo for an ugly sweater contest.

Have fun! And may the ugliest sweater win.

Oh! To post your own copy of the cute button Shannon made for me, you can grab the code below to copy and paste to your blog.

**Any pictures that are sent in may be used on the blog, so just keep that in mind. Thanks!

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  1. BigMama, can I just tell you? My little circle of friends, along with our husbands, are having our own ugly Christmas/Holiday sweater contest! It’s almost required, given that, if you attempt to enter the home without an ugly sweater on, we will immediately begin to make a scene about how non-ugly your attire is. How bad is that? Consider me in for the contest!

  2. I have a question… could i create the sweater on a website I found? You basically decorate your own holiday ugly-sweater. Would that be against the rules?

  5. I’m proud to say that all my Ugly Betty sweaters of the past have been given away because Stacy and Clinton frown BIG time at seasonal attire of any kind. However, if I see one out and about I will definately snag a pic. How about bonus points for getting a stranger to pose in their sweater? That’s kind of mean, I know! sorry

  7. You are my blogging hero. When I grow up I wanna blog just like you! (Obviously when I “grow up” in the blogging world, since I’m guessing you are probably actually younger than me in the plain old world where you find the ugly Christmas sweaters.)

  8. Okay. This is too funny. And scary. So I did a quick search on Ebay for Christmas sweaters (nothing wrong with getting an early start on this), and there are thousands that qualify. And almost all of them have bids on them. PLEASE tell me that all the bidders are entering your contest!! 🙂

  9. Just go to your nearest retirement home and BAM! you got your photo. That, or somewhere in the rural Midwest, U.S.A. I know this because I was there two Christmases ago. People still have hair do’s circa 1989ish and wear fushia(sp?) blush that’s applied up to their temples, and sometimes beyond the hairline.

  13. I am so excited about this. I will head right up to the elementary school. Those teachers are proud of their sweaters. I’m sorry to say I use to be one of them but have turned from the wrong way to the true way!!

  14. So I have to share this–at MOPS a couple of years ago, our Dec. meeting was an ugly sweater theme (not mandatory, just if you wanted to play you could win a prize.) My sweet friend managed to royally stick her foot in her mouth by saying to another mom, “I see you got the memo!” She had no clue what she was talking about–she really liked her ugly sweater! It was priceless. So if you have a themed party, you have to be careful that everyone KNOWS this in advance! 🙂

  18. Oh I so hope you are going to post the pictures as we go because there is NO WAY I can wait until Dec 19th to see some of the entries. Pretty please?

    Stephanie

  19. First, thank you for not making us purchase the ugly sweater.Second, it would be kind of funny to explain to someone exactly WHY you want to take a picture of them! Hee hee.

  21. I teach first grade and at our teachers’ Christmas party last year we all wore our ugliest sweaters (we were ahead of the curve, I guess!) So ugly were they that we changed into them AFTER school for the party. (And some had been given to the teachers by former students.) Mine was so ugly I dropped it by Goodwill the day after the party, thinking I’d never wear that 20 pounds of sequined poinsettias again. Now? How I wish I had held onto it. It would have won hands down.

  22. Oh…I am so sad. My husband has a STRONG, PASSIONATE hatred of fun and festive sweaters – you know, the ones you mock as “ugly”. Consequently, I own none.

    However, I just put batteries in the camera and Goodwill is only a click away and nobody does tacky Christmas wear like a cheap Mainer.

    Bwa-Ha-Ha-ha!!!!

  23. OF COURSE you host this the year AFTER I purge! Of course…now I’ll be on the lookout for all sweaters pitiful and ugly and I HOPE I’ve got a camera on hand when I see The One.

    I just hope it’s not on a friend ;).

  24. Dare I? Seriously considering it. My ugly sweater is actually in the deep freeze in the garage. I’ll have to defrost to get it out. (Don’t ask.)

    Meanwhile, there’s a Smiley awardish thing for you over at She Lives.

  25. I’ll confess that I’ve had my share (or more) of ugly holiday sweaters… not just Christmas, but many holidays. I’m the Activity Coordinator in a nursing home, so it’s part of my job to seek out tacky holiday costumes. 😉

    Do we have to see the sweater in real life? I’ve seen some doozies online!

  27. OH too funny!

    Just last week I was in a thrift shop scoping out snow pants for my little guy for our upcoming ski trip and saw two people standing in front of a full-length mirror, giddy with hysterical laughter because they were trying on old holiday sweater vests.

    I was wondering what that was all about.

    🙂

  28. Although I can say I have never seen an ugly sweater..ha ha..lmao.. I will attempt to track it down and take a picture with baby (my Sony Alpha 300)This is my new mission and ask my friends, I always have a new mission.. Even my son asks me “how long this one will last.”

  29. I can not wait for this one! My Grandmother in law is the queen of gaudy Christmas sweaters and I swear she’s had some of them since the 80’s b/c hubby says she’s been wearing them his whole life and he can’t remember much before the early 80’s. She’ll pull them out next week and I’ll make sure to send the picture.

  31. Oh… so it’s like Cake Wrecks for sweaters. I get it. At first glance I was assuming it had to be something out of my own closet. I was worried.

    Anyways. While I love Stein Mart more than life itself, they are always stocked with the ugliest of ugly Christmas sweaters. Sounds like a trip is in my near future.

    Maybe I can get some retail therapy to overcome the humiliation that was Thursday evening. But I have to ask myself, is any amount of retail therapy going to overcome that? I think not.

  32. I tried hitting up all of the local thrift stores in Sacramento and ended up having to go online to find my ugly holiday sweater this year. I ended up getting mine at baadsheep.com

  34. Oh, this sounds fun. I use to wear lots of Christmas sweaters and I wonder if people thought any were ugly and they were just being nice by not telling me. I don’t usually wear them anymore, but I will check my closet to see if 1 got forgotten when the rest were donated to Goodwill.

  36. I tell you what, I don’t know you and I just happened to come here from one blog to another and YES I KNOW BETH MOORE FROM HOUSTON, TEXAS, FBC. I painted Sunny (her now gone dog that she loved dearly) for her 50th birthday. Just to make a connection there. It gets lonely in alone world even though I am a Texan. But, mama, sound fun! And since my Mom is from Ohio, I know about those sweaters! She gave me a plenty when I was growing up and we would journey to Athens, Ohio for Christmas… merry christmas…Allison

  38. Oh my! had I seen this contest only days earlier, I would have entered an entire group of ugly sweaters- Every month we have a themed Bunco group get together and this month- Yep, you guessed it, the theme was UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATER :o) tee hee!!! so much fun :O)

  39. I know I have already commented, but wanted to add I have just blogged about Christmas fashion in our family as part of my Daily December blogging. I have added a link to this post.

  40. Thanks to those who tipped me off to baadsheep.com! Thanks to you I’ll be the ugliest boy in the office this year!