TIS the season to be jolly. 'Tis also the season for gay apparel to come out of the closet.
Readers may want to pull the wool over their eyes for this one: Festive get-togethers where guests don gawdawful Christmas sweaters are fast becoming as synonymous with the holidays as sleigh rides, mistletoe and 24-hour Wal-Marts.
Joyce Hildebrand, left, host of an Ugly Sweater Party in Niverville, with friends Cheri Downey, Brian Hildebrand and Kathy Doell.
Recently, Joyce Hildebrand hosted her second annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party at her home in Niverville, 25 minutes south of Winnipeg. More than 30 people attended, all of them sporting crewnecks and cardigans only Cliff Huxtable could love.
"Last fall, a friend and I spent Monday evenings driving to quirky thrift shops in neighbouring towns," Hildebrand says, fighting to be heard above guests who greet every new V-neck through the door with loud guffaws.
"Everywhere we went, there seemed to be an abundance of really bad, overly embellished sweaters. That's when I had the brilliant idea for a party."
Hildebrand posted invitations on her blog, Chronicles of Blunderview (www.peenapotty.blogspot.com).
"I saw it as an opportunity to meet some of my readers who were within driving distance, but whom I did not know personally," she says. (Hildebrand's first foray was women-only, but after a male Free Press scribe pretty-pleased his way into this year's affair, it was decided No. 2 would be co-ed.)
Hildebrand doesn't knit-pick when it comes to what qualifies as hideous. "Shiny... garish... even too-small works. Misshapen is good, too, and handmade is a bonus. But I did make it clear last year that if anyone dared to show up looking normal, they would be barred entrance."
Kathy Doell's get-up fits her host's criteria on most counts. Doell's snow-white turtleneck -- with ribbed collar and sleeves, no less -- features tacky, sewn-on trees, gifts and what might be reindeer, but could be dogs. "I found this in a thrift store in Altona," Doell says, performing a quick pirouette. "The woman I bought it from kept saying how lovely it was going to look on me. I didn't have the heart to tell her what I was buying it for."
"I really thought mine was going to be the ugliest one here, but it's not even close," laments Gloria Laing, draped in a gaudy purple and black number that looks like it lost a fight with an angora cat or 10. "But at least I didn't have to spend much -- I paid $6 total for mine and my husband's at a second-hand store in Steinbach."
Affordability is one of the most attractive things about ugly sweater parties, says Hildebrand. That and the inherently informal atmosphere. "Everyone is already busy enough at this time of year, so having to worry about what to wear to a fancy party usually becomes just another to-do," she says. "That's definitely not the case here tonight."
Hildebrand's only regret is that she didn't come up with the notion first.
"I actually thought this was my original idea -- that is, until I Googled "ugly sweater" last year, looking for a picture to accompany my invitations. That's when I discovered lots of photos of people enjoying ugly sweater parties. Before that, I had no clue!"
Tracing the genealogy of ugly sweater parties is best left to experts like Kevin Sherry of West Hollywood, Calif. Sherry, a public relations employee with Nintendo, maintains a website -- www.badsweaterguy.com -- that posts photos taken at like-themed soirees from San Diego to Santa Claus Lane. Sherry has even turned his interest in all things gaudy into a cottage industry. Besides hawking T-shirts, calendars and coffee mugs -- all of them emblazoned with Sherry preening in one fashion monstrosity or another -- the 36-year-old has also spawned a BSG comic strip and appeared as himself (that is, as Bad Sweater Guy) in an independent movie called Long Term Relationship.
His current goal is to net a publisher for his in-the-works bad-sweater coffee-table book.
Every December, Sherry is beset with invitations to be the guest of honour at dos across North America.
"Typically, they are being held far away, so I usually just send a polite note and ask them to send me pictures to post on my site," he says when reached at home in California.
"At some point, the trend of people wearing bad sweaters had to reach a critical mass to where people everywhere had a common experience around the holidays. And then the fad became ripe for mocking with the parties," Sherry hypothesizes. "I'm still not sure where or when it started -- but I'm glad it did."
Canada, already on the hook for five-pin bowling and Celine Dion, looks to be the culprit yet again. Six Christmases ago, a trio of British Columbians led by Jordan Birch had one objective in mind: to organize the cheesiest feel-good yule party ever.
"The first gathering was a huge success, with participants marking their calendar for the following year," says Birch, 25, from his home in Coquitlam.
"Two years later, the social could not be contained within the confined space of a house, so the party was moved to the Highland Pub at Simon Fraser University."
Birch et al.'s brainchild has since outgrown two other venues.
This year's sixth annual event (subtitled: Now With More Lint) will attract 1,000 revellers to Vancouver's Commodore Ballroom on Dec. 21. (All proceeds from the $20 admission fee will be donated to the Give a Hand Up Society of B.C., a non-profit organization serving that province's less fortunate.)
"There are several prizes involved, including one for the eggnog-chugging champion and, of course, for the ugliest sweater," says Birch, who is co-promoting the 2007 shindig with his high school chum, Chris Boyd.
"And because of the accelerated enthusiasm of dress wear from last year, we are adding a best group costume category at this year's event."
(Birch notes that the "festive dress code" in place for the evening allows for a variety of options besides pullovers: ski-suits, pyjamas, red and green leotards -- even body paint -- are all acceptable, he says.)
Birch, a professional scuba diver by trade, says that to date, nobody has disputed his group's claim of having staged the inaugural ugly sweater party.
"Once we moved outside of our homes to a public venue, we began hearing of spinoffs. Frankly, we are flattered by the idea that every bar or club in Vancouver now has some type of sweater party during the holiday.
"As founders of the original, we are proud to have started the movement and are excited for everybody to enjoy the holiday season looking fashionably ugly."
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