Ugly Christmas Jumper: Better not mention
The year of the Pandemic has also changed fashion trends. More hoodies and fewer jackets. Lower sales of high heels, but record sales of Birkenstocks. What does it look like on Christmas Eve?
Christmas 2020
Many important things cannot be harmed by the pandemic (with a bit of luck). If the celebrations of Christmas this year are reduced to very few people or canceled completely and some celebrate alone out of consideration and caution, the actual Christmas message will probably be heard more clearly than usual this year.
For many days we have been wishing each other a Merry Christmas.
A celebration means appreciation, esteem and respect for the occasion. If we have expressed these wishes seriously, then there is a lot to be said for dressing festively on Christmas Eve.
More Being than Appearance
Hoping that there are also positive aspects to the Corona experience and that being, at least for a moment and perhaps longer, is appreciated more than appearances, the casual lockdown attire of the past weeks and months can take a brief pause.
Festive dress is also a way of perceiving Christmas as something special, and in no way means that you hold in low esteem the work of those who wear their doctor’s coats, subway uniforms, nursing uniforms, or any other uniform on Christmas Eve and have no opportunity to celebrate Christmas at all on that day.
On the contrary. All too often, we have seen a lack of appreciation sneak up on us mimicry-style in emphatically casual attire.
Dressed to the nines
There is no clear explanation of what the beautiful English phrase “dressed to the nines” is derived from. She describes being dressed as festively as possible.
One source description traces it back to the Scottish poet Robert Burns, who also wrote the song lyrics to Auld Lang Syne:
“Should auld acquaintance be forgot. And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot. And days of auld lang syne?
“For auld lang syne, my dear. For auld lang syne.
We’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet. For days of auld lang syne…”
The song, traditionally sung at the turn of the year to commemorate long-standing friendships, has special meaning for the year just ending.
Not only on the red carpet
Not only but especially in 2020, elegance on Christmas Eve is a nice idea, because anything else could mean that you dress festively only when a larger public can notice it.
So there’s a lot to be said for dressing for the (inevitably) lonelier 2020 Christmas in the same way you would for a particularly festive event of good friends, such as attending a wedding or christening.
So get to the closet and get out of that home office uniform or the clothes that may have come in handy in the kitchen for preparing Christmas dinner.
Whether you are celebrating in the smallest circle or alone in your apartment and may only be seen in front of the video conference screen, why not dress as you would for the most beautiful event of the year. Not for anyone else, just for yourself.
And for the following Christmas holidays, a little warning
Anyone who has seen the film adaptation Bridget Jones’s Diary, in which Colin Firth as Mark Darcy attends a Christmas party wearing the sweater with the striking reindeer constellation that his mother gave him the day before (and in which he feels extremely uncomfortable as a normally very conservatively dressed lawyer) knows the expression “Ugly Christmas Jumper.”
Originally a Christmas trend in the USA, since the filming of the Bridget Jones diaries with Renee Zellweger also known and increasingly popular in Europe, the “Ugly Christmas Jumper” is the attempt to make a sweater with Christmas motifs deliberately look as kitschy as possible.
If you meet someone in a Christmas sweater at Christmas time, please do not mention, possibly with a wink, the term “Ugly Christmas Jumper?”. He or she might find the sweater particularly nice.
With this in mind, GloriousMe wishes you a peaceful, relaxing, stylish Christmas.
