Because eBay has thousands of them.

I don’t need a Christmas sweater — and given that there are twice as many ways to spell Hanukkah than there are nights in it, trying to find a Jewish holiday sweater on eBay would be an exercise in spellchecky madness. But I do like me some print cardigans, so I was poking about the other night to see what the offerings were. (Yes, clearly my weakness for print cardigans indicates that I still haven’t gotten that Michelle Obama fashion-worship out of my system.) And I found these:

ugly

And then I did a search under “sweaters” for “ugly” and found over three thousand hits!

Had you any idea that ugly Christmas sweaters (and socks, and vests) were such big business? I didn’t. It’s the unbridled glee in the sellers’ descriptions that I find so intoxicating:

ugly1

Yes! That is one ugly sweater! Hooray! (Actually, maybe I’ve been looking at too many of these things, but this one doesn’t strike me as too bad.) And check out this vest:

ugly2

The description on the vest is generally outstanding, in a kind of free-verse way (punctuation and spacing original);

Life of the party,Here it is A very Unique 1 of a Kind.Hand made
My Hubby is a XL and he can close it.There is no buttons up the.
Merry Christmas
Alittle bit of everything On this Sweater,
Thanks for Looking.Please ask questions.

Isn’t that great, in a “help i am ee cummings and am being held prisoner in a quacker factory” kind of way?

But it’s the phrase “1st prize,” I think, gives it all away, as does the word “contest” in a lot of other items. Apparently it’s been way too long since I’ve either celebrated Christmas or worked in an office (my HBS job is fairly isolated), because I’ve never heard of these “ugly Christmas attire” contests. Have you been to one? More importantly, do you have PICTURES you would like to share with all your friends on this blog???

And if you have been to one, and lost? eBay is here to help you, my friends. (But I doubt you’ll find anything on there quite as amazing as these gems.)

AND, if you want to look Christmassy but good, Peacebang at Beauty Tips for Ministers shows you the way.