Why Do Americans Celebrate Ugly Sweater Day? 🎄 | ESL Cultural Lesson |
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Hello, hello, my friends, and welcome back to English Makes No Sense, the podcast where we have fun with the English language and some fun traditions. We're going to have some fun one lesson at a time. If you have ever been invited to an ugly sweater day at work or school and thought, wait a minute, why are we celebrating bad fashion? You, my friend, are not alone. Today, we are going to talk about the origin and history of Ugly Sweater Day. And if you're watching this on Spotify or on YouTube, I have my ugly sweater on. I'll try to get that in the picture. Whoa, let me stand up with it. See that? I got Darth Vader on. Beautiful, ugly sweater. Bought it at Target. And, you know, it's a thing. It's celebrated.
It's a national holiday in the U.S., The third Friday in December is National Ugly Sweater Day. Are you kidding me? No. But I'm going to talk about where this ugly sweater day came from and why Americans love it and what it really means culturally. Are you ready? Let's get busy. What is ugly sweater day? Ugly sweater day is usually celebrated in December, often at workplaces, but it's also a national holiday. We have these crazy national holidays that we give special recognition to. And the third Friday in December is known as national ugly sweater day. Ugly sweater day is usually celebrated at workplaces, schools, holiday parties, and people wear sweaters that are bright, loud, over-decorated, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not.
Think reindeer, flashing lights, bells, giant snowflakes, and way too much glitter. The uglier the sweater, the better. But where did this tradition come from? And why do we embrace it so much? Well, I can give you a little bit of the historical reference. It started seriously. What? Yeah, here's the funny part. Ugly sweaters were not always meant to be ugly. What? In the 1950s through the 1980s, especially in the US and Canada, Christmas sweaters were handmade. They were given as gifts, considered festive and stylish, positive words. They often showed snowmen, Santa, winter scenes. At the time, people wore them seriously. But fashion changed. What? By the 1990s, these sweaters started to feel... old-fashioned, tacky, embarrassing.
People began wearing them ironically. What, Sarah, what are you talking about? Ironically means to do it as a joke, not because you think it's actually good, but you're trying to poke fun of it, have fun with it. Then came the sitcoms, holiday movies, pop culture references characters would wear these sweaters to look awkward nerdy or funny and then suddenly ugly sweaters became cool again but not for the reason that what previous was it was for the exact opposite reason Ugly sweaters parties became popular in the early 2000s, but ugly sweater day really took off around 2011 or 2011, 2012, especially on social media. Companies, schools and offices started using it as team building activities, low pressure holiday celebration and a way to have fun without being too formal.
Now, many workplaces celebrate it during the week before Christmas, holiday spirit week, or holiday fundraisers. Oh, okay. That makes sense, I think. But the ugly sweater, original, original one, the holiday was created in Canada. But, you know, in the U.S., we just took it and we ran with it. Ugly Sweater Day isn't really about sweaters at all. No, it's about not taking yourself too seriously. Seriously, I kind of butchered that word, sorry. Not taking yourself too seriously, laughing at tradition, being playful at work. The Canadians invented it, but in American culture, especially at work, having fun and laughing while wearing your sweater is important. It says it's okay to relax. We're more than just employees.
We're humans. We like to have fun. You can be silly and still be professional and still have fun. And that is why HR departments love it.
What?
Here's some vocabulary you'll hear a lot. Let's quickly break down a few key words. Tacky. You can say, ooh, that looks tacky. Tacky means something that looks cheap or badly designed. When it's ugly sweater day, the tackier, the better.
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