Traditional party-going etiquette dictates that you put on your finest (or at least finer-than-normal) fashions when you are invited to attend a shindig, and this is doubly true for holiday parties, where festive dress is generally expected. But over the last couple of years, a new trend has emerged on the holiday party scene. With the ugly Christmas sweater party gaining popularity in leaps and bounds, it seems like your family gatherings, friendly get-togethers, and even office soirees now require you to don the ugliest holiday sweater you can lay your hands on. And since most of these parties include contests and prizes, it has become common practice to accessorize ugly Christmas clothing in order to make a truly hideous spectacle of a sweater. If you want to compete, or your goal is simply to astonish other party-goers with the sheer tackiness of your sweater, here are a few suggestions for accessories that should make your garment the ugliest of them all.
Winter white. Nothing says classy like white-on-white holiday decor, so start with an ugly, Scandinavian, mohair confection and dress it up with a faux-fur collar, some spray-on flocking, poofy pom-poms, and paper cutouts of snowflakes. If your goal is to make winter white look tacky, there’s no better way than by decorating an ugly Christmas sweater in an array of wrongness ranging from eggshell to ecru.- Be the tree. Pretty much anything you might put on a Christmas tree can be employed in the pursuit of an even uglier holiday sweater. Fragile ornaments like glass or plastic bulbs should probably be avoided, as should heirloom pieces handed down through generations of your family. But there’s no reason you can’t adorn your sweater with strings of tinsel, garlands of beads, jingle bells, boughs of holly, fake icicles, candy canes, and all manner of Christmas decor. You could even wear your tree topper as a hat if you want to get really inventive.
- Wrappings. While you might not want to wrap yourself like a package, you can definitely accessorize your sweater with shiny bows, velvet ribbon, and stick-on gift labels. Any craft item you might use to wrap and decorate a gift is fair game when it comes to decorating your ugly holiday sweater.
- Holiday movie fare. You’ve no doubt seen a few heinous holiday sweaters on the silver screen, from the ugly reindeer jumper in ‘Bridget Jones’ Diary’ to the three-dimensional moose heads in ‘Deck the Halls’. And if you want to pay homage to your favorite, all you need is a photo of said sweater to start and some materials from the craft store.
- Get lit. The goal here is not to set your ugliest xmas sweaters (or other party-goers) on fire, so skip the candles and practice safety first. That said, there’s no reason you can’t add the wow factor by getting creative with a string of holiday lights and a battery pack. Whether you wrap the whole string around you or strategically light Rudolph’s nose with a single, red bulb, this extra can put you over the edge when it comes to creating the tackiest holiday sweater at the party.
