I don't take the "ugly" in "ugly sweater" to really mean "ugly". I think of it as an ironic way to refer to that style of knitting, which I also think is really beautiful. If I had any of the lovely sweaters in your recent posts, I would have worn one of them to an "ugly sweater" party while still thinking of it as beautiful. No cognitive dissonance, because I live sarcasm/irony--when my son really likes a meal I've made, he tells me it's "turrible". But if you take the term "ugly" at face value, then your sweaters absolutely do not fit!

I honestly thought it was all about embellished sweaters that may actually be sweatshirts. But I much prefer the idea of borrowing one of any style that's already in the family, or just decorating yourself with garland, lights or whatever... something creative rather than purchased!

Apparently Value Village is promoting the concept hard, so maybe that's part of the reason these parties are catching on in Canada. At least they do have some DIY versions.
https://www.valuevillage.com/i.....ckysweater

Jaileen, I think your sweater is actually cute, but totally acceptable to wear to such a theme party (and I like the fact the other guests saw it as a request rather than a demand and basically said a polite "no thank you!").

Jules, I think the hostess wanted an ugly sweater party, but her guests had minds of their own. One of the guests pinned tinsel to his sweater. I’m not sure what the sweater looked like because he wore it inside out - on purpose!!

FashIntern, I didn’t want to wear one of my lovely traditional sweaters because I didn’t want to promote the idea that that style is ugly. Most of the ones in the stores are indeed ugly.

So not a thing here, because we have a summer Christmas. Our equivalent is probably wearing kooky headgear of one kind or another eg reindeer antlers. The first "ugly sweater" I ever saw was probably the ( meant to be hand knitted?) reindeer one that Colin Firth wore as Mark Darcy in the first Bridget Jones movie. That movie is rather old now. He looked pretty funny in that. And I get reminded of Ron Weasley's hand knitted jumpers for Christmas in the Harry Potter books which may have even predated Bridget Jones.
I don't like waste either. But if these things get kept they can get dragged out again, right?

Jenni, a summery Christmas would be interesting. My brother wears a Christmassy Hawaiian shirt every year...with a turtleneck shirt underneath!!

There’s seems to be a thing to make ugly sweaters disgusting. At my husband’s office party one person wore a sweater that looked like the one pictured!

For future reference, one of the school teachers I work with purchases his ugly sweater party sweaters at a thrift store. He manages to find something interesting, gaudy, and or appropriate for the occasion every year and he doesn’t worry about the cost, it’s never more than a couple dollars.

Staysfit, of course I agree that thrifting is the way to go. However, since ugly sweaters became a thing, they flew out the store well before we knew we were invited to an ugly sweater party.

I think the one you chose and wore was fine - there's no need to go through a lot of trouble for a party that's supposed to be fun, you just make *some* effort and you obviously did that.

Texstyle yes, it did look like I tried. I just wanted to play along.

I’ve worn the sweater twice more - to church, with black wide leg pants and white booties, and on Christmas with jeans and navy booties. I wanted something that I didn’t care about on Christmas. I was helping with cooking, and playing with the kids (and managed not to hurt myself on the hoverboard!).

Funny, I don't think of the sweater parties as being about "trying". My take is that they are meant to do the opposite, and free people up from the pressure to find just the right outfit.

Fashintern, well, should we ever be invited to another ugly sweater party, we’ll be freed up! BTW, the classic Norwegian and Fair Isle sweaters have never been out of style. That’s the beauty of a classic. The Scottie sweater is not a classic - acrylic - ugh.