While for years, popular fashion looked down on Christmas jumpers and sweaters but in recent times, ugly holiday sweaters are gaining popularity in a big way. Online sellers of various Christmas apparel, including Christmas suits and Christmas pyjamas, will vouch for the fame these sweaters have surprisingly attained in the recent decades. While there’s nothing subtle about an ugly Christmas sweater, most are downright outrageous, and these sell like hot cakes.

Celebrities sporting these cheap Christmas sweaters, make them even trendier. There was this famous instance of Justin Bieber wearing a Christmas sweater worth $1,650 during a live performance.

Somewhere at the turn of this century, three Indiana State University graduates were sharp enough to observe the rise in popularity of these sweaters during Christmas parties. From elf Christmas sweaters to reindeer sweaters to hideous sweaters sporting huge Christmas trees with decorations made of pompoms and appliqu, these garments appeared to have taken the holidays by storm.

Adam Paulson, Kevin Wool and Brian Miller, these graduates, are the men behind UglyChristmasSweaterParty.com. In their opinion, people are quite conscious and, therefore, sick to death of paying attention to what they wear and how they appear through the year, that during the Christmas season, they cannot wait to let their hair down, wear a Christmas sweater, be trendy yet uninhibited. Towards the end of that decade, they observed that people were having a tough time finding ugly cheap Christmas sweaters and started an online business. They bought 50 sweaters from Goodwill for an approximate $75 and everything sold in a matter of hours.

Today, online selling of cheap Christmas sweaters is a successful business with many making a good living from it. UglyChristmasSweaterParty.com, for instance, in the beginning of this decade sold nearly 15,000 sweaters for about $24 a piece during the holiday season.

Ugly Christmas sweaters have their advantages. For one, they make for great conversation starters. Nothing beats a hideous reindeer on bulky sweater as an icebreaker. Two, they make the perfect business gift for someone who has everything, or for anyone who doesn’t mind laughing at themselves. These sweaters can totally help one get into the spirit of things. Three, they are the perfect party idea. Ugly Sweater themed Christmas parties have been all the rage for years now and they don’t appear to be diminishing in popularity any time soon. Nothing like an “ugly themed” Christmas party with tacky sweaters and with hideous looking food and drink to boot to ensure everyone from children to the aged have fun.