Lhe “ugly Christmas sweater” is a tradition that is gradually taking hold in France, where “ugly Christmas sweater parties” are organized. (“ugly christmas sweater party”) at the office or with friends. Like many end-of-year traditions, this one comes from the Anglo-Saxon world.
But the sweater in question was not always followed by the adjective ” ugly “. Before being described as such, which is a way of ensuring that everyone understood the sarcasm, the Christmas sweater was a completely “first degree” family tradition: at Christmas, knitted sweaters were offered by hand, with motifs related to the festive season: reindeer, snowflakes, snowmen, fir trees.
Make no mistake about it, the Christmas jumper already had a rather particular taste, a little childish and regressive. But when a grandmother or an aunt had spent several days knitting it, we wore her sweater without flinching. In the 1980s, the Christmas sweater began to be mass-produced, deliberately imitating handmade sweaters: large patterns, garish colors and thick wool.
A prize awarded at the end of the evening
In 2002, two students from Vancouver (Canada) organized a “ugly christmas sweater party”an ugly Christmas sweater party, tradition that has endured in the city ever since. Everyone must come with a Christmas sweater, now ironic, and the prize for the ugliest sweater is awarded at the end of the evening.
We wear it while showing that we clearly perceive its kitsch side and far from the standards of good taste. The concept is exported to the business world, where massive Christmas ugly sweater parties are organized. In general, the thing is documented in images, if we are to believe Google (be careful the colors sting the eyes a little).
The paternity of the ironic use of the “ugly Christmas sweater” is however disputed with the Canadian students by a heroine of cinema: Bridget Jones. Unless it was she who gave them the idea. In Bridget Jones Diary (2001), the heroine meets the future-man-of-her-life-even-if-it-is-complicated at her parents’ Christmas buffet. Marc Darcy wears a reindeer head sweater, and Bridget Jones is immediately much less excited.
Humor or slightly hypocritical elitism?
Whatever the true origin, there is now an International Christmas Sweater Day on December 21. As pointed out Voxthere are ugly sweaters wearing the mascot of American football teams and even magazine articles vogue telling you why you need to have your own ugly sweater. But not everyone understands this irony.
The journalist from Vox says that a few years ago his aunt said during Christmas preparations that “in big cities, people wear Christmas sweaters just to make fun of it”. She had heard about this fashion on television. The aunt in question made matching Christmas sweaters for the children of the family every year and did not see the problem. The scene obviously takes place in a small town in Nebraska, far from the parties of New York or San Francisco.
Those who ironically wear their Christmas jumper would therefore demonstrate, according to voice, of a somewhat hypocritical elitism. “We allow ourselves the fad of a funny Christmas sweater, while insisting on the fact that, of course, we are not the type of person who could buy and appreciate such an object in the first degree. »
And to regret that we cannot take advantage, sincerely, of the “Christmas magic” without having to organize staggered evenings to show that we are above all that.