How the ‘Ugly Sweater’ Took Over America

Last week, one of the top search terms for women’s fashion was “holiday sweaters.” eBay currently boasts around 850,000 listings for these seasonal garments. How did America become so enchanted with these eccentric, over-the-top pieces of apparel?

This year, Debbie McClain is set to craft about 800 ugly sweaters from her workshop in Fremont, Indiana, shipping these elaborately adorned creations to customers around the globe. Yet, despite being at the heart of this festive fashion trend, McClain herself refrains from wearing them.

“I love them, but I don’t actually wear them,” McClain shared with The Daily Beast. “I’m too busy this time of year. By the time Christmas rolls around, I’m so swamped that we usually don’t even have a tree up.”

McClain runs a small operation with a team of nine, churning out holiday cheer through her brick-and-mortar store and online Etsy shop, fittingly named “Tacky Ugly Sweaters.” With prices reaching up to $200, her creations include quirky options like a Yeti pullover adorned with string lights. For those looking to add a sultry touch to their festive ensemble, the store’s “Sexy” category offers playful designs where puns like “Ho ho ho” take center stage.

Celebrities Join the Sweater Craze

At this time of year, ugly Christmas sweaters are selling like hotcakes. Bradford Shellhammer, vice president of buyer experience at eBay, mentioned that over 850,000 sweaters are currently available on the platform. Last week, “holiday sweaters” was the second-most searched term for women’s fashion on eBay, sandwiched between “dresses” and “Lululemon” in popularity. While search interest peaked at 20,000 daily queries in early November, it has since leveled off to around 3,000 per day as the holiday season approaches.

Between September and November this year, over 26,000 holiday sweaters were sold on eBay. Shellhammer himself snagged one featuring British singer Morrissey’s silhouette with a classic Fair Isle pattern. He plans to flaunt his festive find at eBay’s holiday party in New York City, where an ugly sweater contest will be one of the highlights.

“There’s an ugly sweater for everything,” Shellhammer quipped, adapting the famous “rule 34” of the internet, which suggests if something exists, there’s likely a holiday sweater version of it. “Whether it’s a movie, a sports team, or a music icon, you can find an ugly sweater for it.”

While his observation might be slightly exaggerated—there’s no Santa-themed A Star Is Born sweater, for instance—plenty of trendy references have made their way onto sweaters. Think Ariana Grande lyrics or, for the bold and politically inclined, sweaters like “Dear Santa, Please Impeach.”

Even celebrities are embracing the trend. Whoopi Goldberg, known for her holiday spirit, has launched two seasonal sweater collections with Zappos. One of her $99 unisex designs features Mrs. Claus striking a Rosie the Riveter pose above the slogan, “It takes a real woman to get it done in one night.”

“Even though they’re ugly, women still want to feel good in them,” McClain explained. “We aim for the perfect blend of sexy and tacky—think fluffy feathers, poinsettias, and plenty of bedazzling to ensure you still feel cute.”

The Rise of the Tacky Trend

McClain’s male customers, on the other hand, tend to favor the most absurd embellishments they can find—everything from three-dimensional deer heads to beer bottles. “The more junk on the sweater, the better it is for men,” McClain observed with a laugh.

Her journey into the world of ugly sweaters began nine years ago when her daughter called from college with a revelation. “She told me to check out the ugly Christmas sweaters on eBay,” McClain recalled. “I couldn’t believe it—they were selling for a fortune, fifty to a hundred bucks for old, outdated sweaters!”

Inspired by the potential, McClain scoured local thrift stores for holiday sweaters to resell. When the supply ran low, she started making her own, adding quirky, glued-on embellishments rather than knitting them into the fabric.

While today’s ugly sweaters are often seen as humorous, their roots are surprisingly wholesome. Back in the 1950s, crooners like Andy Williams and Perry Como helped popularize winter-themed sweaters during holiday performances, especially with the advent of color TV, which allowed these performers to showcase vibrant, festive patterns.

These sweaters were often created using a technique called intarsia, which allowed for intricate, multicolored designs. According to Maxcine DeGouttes, founder of the Kings County Fiber Festival in Brooklyn, the style spread as women gathered at knit shops to learn the technique and create festive outfits for their families.

Over time, however, these once-homemade creations became cliché, relegated to the “unwanted gift” category in many households. By the 1980s, TV dads like Clark Griswold from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Cliff Huxtable from The Cosby Show reinforced the association between chunky, bright sweaters and goofy, endearing characters.

In 2014, Dutch designer Koos van den Akker, who designed many of Cosby’s iconic sweaters, explained their unexpected appeal: “They weren’t popular at first, but eventually, people started watching and saying, ‘What the heck was that?’”

By the time Colin Firth donned his famous reindeer sweater in Bridget Jones’s Diary, the ugly Christmas sweater had officially returned to the spotlight. In the mid-2000s, the trend surged, becoming a staple at holiday pub crawls and Christmas parties.

A Trend That Won’t Die

Despite many thinking the ugly sweater fad would fizzle out, McClain insists it’s here to stay. “I’ve been predicting the trend’s death for years,” she laughed. “Every year, I expect sales to drop off, but we always end up having another record-breaking season.”

She knew the trend had gone mainstream when her small Indiana town began hosting ugly Christmas sweater events. “We’re usually about ten years behind the rest of the country,” McClain joked. “When Fremont starts doing it, you know the trend is everywhere.”

And indeed, the ugly Christmas sweater is no longer just a niche joke—it has become a beloved holiday tradition across America, proving that sometimes, the tackiest trends are the ones that stick the longest.