There's a new child in town, and it's not the glittering fir trees and wreaths, eggnog, stockings, or the workplace secret Santa. During the past decade, the ugly Christmas sweaters or jumper has firmly entrenched itself in yuletide society. You've seen it before. It's a woolly pullover with a snowman, tinsel, a reindeer, or candy canes on it, generally in various hues of red, white, and green, frequently of dubious fabric.

These sweaters were originally known as "Jingle Bell Sweaters. Did you know that they weren't as gaudy as today's incarnations and didn't sell well?

Until the 1980s it was not very popular. Pop culture and comedy influenced the transformation. Such is the uplifting power of ugly sweater that it has again come back to the fashion and is ruling the fashion world like anything!

There are ugly sweaters for every occasion, including humorous, tacky, interactive, and 3D adorned sweaters. That means you can get one ugly Christmas sweater authorized by grandma and one tacky Christmas sweater to win over your old buddies.

What's not to love about an ugly Christmas sweater party that invites you to get snug, warm up, and enjoy the season in a low-key way? If you inquire around the Paperless Post office, there isn't anything. An ugly sweater party is appropriate for a holiday happy hour at work, Christmas Eve with the family, or a virtual university alumni party. We'll go through the newest ugly sweater party invites, tried-and-true décor, the lowdown on DIY ugly sweaters, and the finest ugly sweater party activities (for virtual or socially-distanced parties).

You're probably wondering where this fixation with ugly Christmas parties came from. People began putting jingle bells to Christmas sweaters as the holiday became increasingly commercialised in the 1950s. Then there were the obnoxious sweaters worn by legendary 1980s sitcom families such as the Huxtables.