Culture refers to the beliefs, customs, social behavior, and ideas of a group of people; it entails the characteristics of a group of people, including language, religion, social habits, music, arts, and cuisine, among others. Some cultural practices continue to be celebrated or practiced over the years. The ugly Christmas sweater is an example of a modern culture that has continued to be practiced over the years. Christmas is a holiday that is celebrated in many countries all over the world. The ugly Christmas sweater not only keeps people warm it also spreads the Christmas spirit and creates a Christmas theme in the house.

There is an article on CNN news that explains the history of the ugly Christmas sweater. According to Cerini (20210, the ugly Christmas sweater is a woolly pullover often in the shades of red, green, and white with a Christmas-inspired motif that has managed to embed itself as part of the Christmas tradition. According to Cerini (2021), the ugly Christmas sweater first appeared in the 1950s when they were called the jingle bell sweaters. The ugly Christmas sweaters finally hit the mainstream media in the 1980s due to pop culture and comedies; it was turned into an uncomely but charming expression of cheer. The popularity of the ugly Christmas sweater lost popularity in the 1990s when people began looking at it as something that only unfashionable older adults would put on or buy a gift. By the onset of the new millennium, the ugly Christmas sweater had completely lost its popularity. Cerini (2021) provides an example of the movie Bridget Jones’s diary that portrayed the Christmas sweater as ugly. The early 2000s was also the time when the ugly Christmas sweater started being popular again.

People started wearing the sweater in a humorous way, and the more people wore it, the more it started gaining popularity. People started seeing the sweater as something fun and comic rather than something awful, and that is when the sweaters’ popularity snowballed. The ugly Christmas sweater became a common tradition during Christmas; it became the new mistletoe (Donohue, 2016). Soon fashion giants such as Top Shop, Givenchy, and Dolce and Gabbana, further popularized the ugly Christmas sweater when they started selling them. Celebrities such as Taylor Swift, Jimmy Fallon, and Kanye West soon took up the ugly Christmas sweater trend and made them even more popular. Social media also took up the trend and continues to popularize the ugly Christmas sweater.

Christmas is a tradition or culture that unifies people from all over the world. The ugly Christmas sweater is an important tradition that continues to make Christmas cheery. Families send each other the ugly Christmas sweater to spread the Christmas cheer and love.