Ugly Christmas Sweaters A Hit? Who Knew!
Remember that gift that always made you cry? No, these aren’t tears of joy. They are tears of sadness. Children across the nation mourn when they tear open a perfectly wrapped box, only to see a bright red sweater with giant reindeer staring back at them. So why have college student’s now come to embrace this clothing?
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We all have one christmas that stands out in our memories. Sometimes it’s receiveing the gift you have always wanted. More often it’s about coping with a gift you absolutely dreaded. Most girls dream about a new Barbie sitting under the tree while boys dream of a new baseball glove.
However, we have all had that one gift that we dreamt about only in our nightmares. The gift from our grandparents that made us cry. Now, these aren’t tears of joy. They are tears of sadness. Children across the nation mourn when they tear open a perfectly wrapped box, only to see a bright red sweater with giant reindeer staring back at them.
However, over the years, college students have learned how to love the “Ugly Christmas Sweater”.
First, let me start with a brief history of the ugly sweater. Ugly Christmas sweaters are normally worn by children between the ages of three and twelve. It starts out being cute. “Oh look at little Susie wearing her colorful Christmas shirt!” That is okay to say when little Susie is four, but when little Susie is twelve and still wearing that cute, little, colorful Christmas shirt, then we have a problem.
Opening up these sweaters on Christmas is twenty times worse than wearing one. Receiving this hideous gift means we are forced to fake excitement because we don’t want to hurt Aunt Mildred’s feelings.
Another group of people that wear these sweaters are teachers and moms. We have all seen a friend’s mom sporting their holiday cheer through a Christmas vest. Even our teachers in elementary school would declare their love for each holiday with an ugly sweater. How could anyone forget a teacher who wore that Halloween haunted house sweater vest.
Over the years though, many college students have come to have a love-hate relationship with this item of clothing. The relationship between college students and ugly sweaters has become a complicated one.
When students come back to school after Thanksgiving break, they normally only have one thing on their mind (and no it isn’t finals). College students have found that there is normally one weekend left before finals start and they plan to take full advantage of that. They plan parties to celebrate the end of the semester and the arrival of Christmas. These are no ordinary Christmas parties though where you are asked to wear red and green. These parties ask students to dig their worst holiday sweaters out from their closets and wear them one last time.
“My ugly sweaters and I have a love-hate relationship. I love to wear them to an ugly sweater party, but hate the way they look,” one Bloomsburg senior said. “These parties are so much fun. It reminds me of the holidays I had when I was younger! It’s a lot of fun to see everyone wearing them and just having a good time.”
When asked if she had a favorite ugly sweater moment, she started to laugh. “It’s actually quite funny. I was about ten and my grandmother came to visit for Christmas. The box was wrapped neatly and felt pretty heavy. I thought it was a Barbie house I wanted…but when I opened it, my face went numb. A red sweatshirt with two cows was what I saw. It gets worse, they had matching red sweatpants. Tears were running down my face, I didn’t know what to do. My poor grandmother thought I was crying because I liked it so much, boy was that a lie!”
This Bloomsburg student, who would like to go unnamed, also spoke about another sweater she received. This time it was Christmas themed and had giant snowmen and snowflakes on it. She had to wear this sweater for the next two years at Christmas dinner, until she received a new sweater!
We have all had a terrible outfit we were forced to wear, but now it seems the older we get, the more we embrace those dreadful sweaters. College students find them as a source of laugher and reminisce about their own terrible sweater moments. No matter how hard we tried to escape the ugly sweaters, they will always to be around to haunt us. These parties are a way to make fun of the sweaters we once hated but instead of sitting in the corner and sulking like we did when we were ten; we have learned how to cope with these appalling items of clothing. We throw huge parties where we celebrate the true ugliness of the sweaters while consuming frosted beverages. Now go out and celebrate your ugly sweaters, Happy Holidays!
