-Christopher Muther
Boston Globe
Article: Garish Good Fun, December 18, 2008
Two years ago, Steve and I hosted our first holiday sweater party, which was so ridiculous that we decided to host another one this year. I soon found out from friends, family, and thrift store owners that the sweater party is a near mass movement or at least a mass movement - among white people - according to the blog Stuff White People Like (a bit dubious since the picture on the Blog includes a black man who looks pretty happy in his sweater) and several Boston Globe news items (Garish Good Fun and Ugly Sweater Party photos), and, of course, the Google search "Ugly Sweater Party".
The sweater party fits today. It's green, since ideally the sweater is purchased from a thrift store or dug out of an old trunk. It's a cheap theme - fitting when I was in grad school and fitting in a Recession. It's fun to prepare for: one of our male guests had to outmaneuver several older women at a bargain rack for his find, another guest reported visiting five thrift shops, eventually finding Christmas sweaters at a shop where she had to knock on a door to get the shopkeeper to unlock the darky and dusty shop, then pick through defunct garments for the prized sweaters, Steve and Chad made their sweaters, and I scored a sweater at thrift shop #3. You get to explore your community. You get to craft. You don't have to take yourself too seriously.
Perhaps thrift store owners are keyed in on the ugly sweater phenomena, which has pushed it over the top, since one particularly hideous Christmas vest at a flea market was a whopping $24 (No way!), but it worked this year.
See pics below.
The sweater party fits today. It's green, since ideally the sweater is purchased from a thrift store or dug out of an old trunk. It's a cheap theme - fitting when I was in grad school and fitting in a Recession. It's fun to prepare for: one of our male guests had to outmaneuver several older women at a bargain rack for his find, another guest reported visiting five thrift shops, eventually finding Christmas sweaters at a shop where she had to knock on a door to get the shopkeeper to unlock the darky and dusty shop, then pick through defunct garments for the prized sweaters, Steve and Chad made their sweaters, and I scored a sweater at thrift shop #3. You get to explore your community. You get to craft. You don't have to take yourself too seriously.
Perhaps thrift store owners are keyed in on the ugly sweater phenomena, which has pushed it over the top, since one particularly hideous Christmas vest at a flea market was a whopping $24 (No way!), but it worked this year.
See pics below.
The gang's all here (clockwise from left): Melody, Storey, Beau, Chad, Ben, me, Sarah, Steve, and Ted
The handmade Christmas sweater boys, Steve and Chad.
Beau sporting a sweatshirt with an ambiguous message. What could it mean?
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