6 of the Most Outrageous Naughty Ugly Christmas Sweaters

Whether you are naughty or nice, chances are good that there’s an ugly Christmas sweater that’s right for you. Tacky holiday sweaters come in many shapes and sizes… just ask baseball’s Jonathan Papelbon, or the woman who wore an enormous 3-D reindeer sweater on the Today show the other day.

While some trend-watchers predicted that the ugly Christmas sweater craze would be on its way out soon, in fact, tacky festive sweaters are more popular than ever. Traffic to my co-author’s ugly sweater website is triple that of last year, and we’ve never seen so many sweater-themed events planned around the country.

Last weekend, I attended a 12-bar ugly Christmas sweater crawl in my town, and each venue was packed to the gills with happy partygoers in all manner of festive finery. (I overheard one girl say she couldn’t concentrate because my ugly sweater was so distracting, yes!)

The colorful, showy world of ugly Christmas sweaters is an arms race of ugly, with people seeing just how outrageous they can get, in order to win bragging rights and sometimes even real prizes at bar crawls and parties. Last season, our book Rock Your Ugly Christmas Sweater ($12.95, Running Press) showcased some of the boldest, funniest ugly sweaters around.

But this year, people have upped the ante, and not just by making a reindeer with a behind, like the lady from the Today show. A former NASA engineer is selling ugly sweaters with pouches for smartphones, which play a free app with a looped video, to make the ensemble really come to life.

But what has really struck us this year, both at sweater crawls and online, are the naughty ugly sweaters that are popping up all over the place. We did feature a handful of risque sweaters in our book, but now there are many more choices to get a giggle, sly wink, or even a hearty chuckle from friends and strangers.

Check out these hilarious numbers, which may not be for the faint at heart: