Sales of Christmas sweaters purposely designed to be ugly are looking pretty good at this point, according to the companies that make them.

 

Festified.com, which started making off-color holiday jumpers in 2009, claims it will sell tens of thousands of sweaters this holiday season, while UglyChrstmasSweater.com is predicting sales of 30,000 ugly sweaters. Meanwhile, San Diego-based Tipsy Elves expects to beat the $3 million they had in sales in 2013.

 

As in all things, not just Christmas sweaters, ugliness is in the eye of the beholder². But there are certain standards that ugly Christmas sweaters must adhere to, according to Tipsy Elves CEO Evan Mendelsohn.

 

"If you are trying to go truly ugly, it's all about the embellishments -- the more garland, bells, balls, lights, and sequins you can attach to your sweater, the better," he said.

 

Mendelsohn's company and Festified take the accepted ugliness standards and add a touch of tastelessness. Along with the garlands, bells and garish³ red and green patterns come subtly shocking pictures, such as a reindeer⁴ threesome or Santa Claus showing his butt⁵ crack.

 

Some people find the ugly sweaters amusing. Others, like fashion expert Bryce Gruber, think they may have gone too far. "My brother-in-law told me how he saw some old lady in her 70s at a sports bar wearing a sweater that showed a snowman with a carrot in his crotch and two Christmas ornaments⁶ dangling⁷ below," she said. "If the sweater is just ugly -- like too many rhinestones⁸ or sequins -- that's fine, but the holiday is not supposed to be about sexual snowmen."

 

Fashion stylist James Cornwell says that even though ugly -- and edgy⁹ -- sweaters are in fashion, context is everything. What works at a party with friends might not work at a gathering¹⁰ filled with conservative relatives. "You won't get as much criticism if you make fun of Santa or the reindeer as you might with Jesus," he said.

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