Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve surely heard about the ugly Christmas sweater trend. It started in the late 90s as a tacky take on the traditional holiday party. Christmas sweaters have been manufactured for decades. The first ugly Christmas sweater party was purportedly held by Chris Boyd and Jordan Birch in 2002. The party became an annual tradition, and by 2004 it outgrew its Vancouver house party origins and moved to the Highland Pub at Simon Fraser University. Popularity snowballed and in 2005, the party moved to the Commodore Ballroom, which accommodates 1,000 people. The trend has only grown since then, and each year thousands of ugly Christmas sweater parties are held across North America.

With the increasing popularity of ugly sweater parties in recent years, many new websites have cropped up to cash in on the trend. What makes TheSweaterStore.com different? We started selling Ugly Christmas Sweaters online in 2011, when the trend was just taking off. Nowadays, everyone and their uncle has a website selling the same new mass produced ugly sweaters that you can buy on Amazon.com. Our website has, and always will be focused on helping you find a truly unique, one-of-a-kind, vintage sweater.

When you buy a sweater from TheSweaterStore.com, you can be sure that it has been lovingly passed down through the years: from it’s original home at QVC or a department store, to someone’s grandmother (who thought it was adorable), to an organization that accepts clothing donations, to our warehouse where we sort recycled clothing, and finally onto TheSweaterStore.com, where it’s waiting for that special someone (maybe you?) to order and it and take it to the party.

Our inventory is comprised of over 25,000 vintage Ugly Christmas sweaters from 2,536 of the hottest brands (that’s not a typo). We are confident that our inventory contains at least one sweater from every brand that has ever manufactured ugly sweaters, from A La Carte and A Little Extra Spice to YS Studios and Zoodle. No, we haven’t heard of them either, but apparently they had some really great / terrible designers, depending on your perspective.

We separate our inventory into five distinct styles of sweaters. Each style has it’s own pros and cons, so it’s important to choose wisely.

Ugly Christmas sweatshirts: Popular in the late 80s and early 90s, Christmas sweatshirts are a lightweight alternative to the traditionally thick heavyweight knit Christmas sweater. Many of them feature fantastically kitschy screen prints. With 90s inspired looks currently at the forefront of the fashion world, Ugly Christmas sweatshirts are a great option if your goal is to look cute and on-trend at your holiday party.

Ugly Christmas vests: Love layering? Rock a vest over a long sleeve tee (or turtleneck!). Don’t love layering? Rock a vest anyway and charge your fellow partygoers admission for the “gun show”. The bottom line is that vests are very versatile. As a result, they’re also one of the most popular styles for our customers.

Ugly Christmas cardigans: Historically the most popular of all Christmas sweater styles, roughly 60% of our vintage sweaters are cardigans. With nearly 15,000 to choose from there’s bound to be a cardigan out there for you.

Ugly Christmas pullovers: When most people think of a sweater, they picture a pullover. While overshadowed by cardigans in sheer numbers, pullover sweaters may have the ugliest designs on average.

Ugly Christmas turtlenecks: An extravagantly ugly variation on the classic pullover, the turtleneck can be found in tight high neck and looser cowl neck varieties. We recommend both for only the most serious ugly sweater enthusiasts. They’re a surefire way to stand out from the crowd of standard neck sweater wearers and indicate that you’re not afraid to look silly while celebrating the holidays.

Whichever style you decide on, be sure to complete the look with our selection of fun accessories. We carry hats, glasses and other add ons that range from cute and classic to absurdly outrageous.

We’re vintage sweater advocates, but if the thought of wearing someone’s old sweater really makes you uncomfortable, we also offer brand new unworn sweaters and sweatshirts. They don’t have as much personality, but they’re still pretty cool. Our holiday sweatshirts feature funny screenprints available exclusively at TheSweaterStore.com

Another benefit of ordering a new sweater or sweatshirt is that the sizing is much more straightforward. Our new sweaters and sweatshirts come in standard men’s / unisex sizes Small - XL . Our vintage sweaters are a mix of men’s and women’s sweaters from thousands of different brands, so although we list the tag size, the most accurate way to estimate the fit is to look at the measurements of each sweater and compare them to measurements of your own clothing. See our sizing page for more information. If you have any questions about finding the perfect sweater, don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re happy to help!

Don’t forget to buy your sweater for National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day, which is celebrated on December 16th this year. For more information, click here. Also check out our other fun categories like fanny packs, onesie pajamas, and tie dye shirts!)