Is it nostalgic or elegiac? There's a fine line. But I was just thinking that I miss Christmas sweaters. They were definitely an 80s thing, maybe even 70s. They were adorned with Santas and reindeer, jingle bells and sometimes even working lights. I preferred the ones where the design continued over to the back. I felt cheated if Santa's sleigh stopped at the side seam. I had one long cardigan style that had a real bell near the bottom back that made it kind of hard to sit down. Another favorite of mine and my "grandcat" had little elves with 3-D beards of some white furry stuff. The beards were like catnip to Libby the grandcat.
Living in the South made it difficult to find days cool enough to wear your pullover holiday sweaters. You really had to wear a shirt under the sweater which doubled the internal temperature. But if you didn't, when the thermometer reached 80 degrees at 2:00 PM, you could not peel it off revealing a shirt damp under the arms and on the back. Corduroy pants in bright colors were the perfect accessory but definitely increased the thermal factor. You are not a real southern girl until you have worn your Christmas sweater with shorts.
Christmas sweaters were kind of like the annual Waterford Christmas ornament, you added one to your collection every year. They were relatively expensive so the smart collector might wait for after Christmas sales and hope the coveted sweater was still on the rack. Of course, then you had to wait eleven months to get to wear it. No one ever wore a Christmas sweater before Thanksgiving or after December 25th.
Now there are office parties whose themes involve "tacky Christmas sweaters." Lucky millenials have moms who could not bear throwing away their Christmas sweaters, unlucky ones search second hand thrift shops. There is even an eBay market for gaudy sweaters of red or green adorned with ribbon and snowmen and decorated trees. The more garish your sweater the more likely you are to win the prize for the worst Christmas sweater.
Well, all I can say is that winning sweater was once loved by someone who wore it and thought they looked terrific in it. And when they "come back" I'll be ready...I have my favorite two or three tucked away on a shelf in my closet just waiting.
Living in the South made it difficult to find days cool enough to wear your pullover holiday sweaters. You really had to wear a shirt under the sweater which doubled the internal temperature. But if you didn't, when the thermometer reached 80 degrees at 2:00 PM, you could not peel it off revealing a shirt damp under the arms and on the back. Corduroy pants in bright colors were the perfect accessory but definitely increased the thermal factor. You are not a real southern girl until you have worn your Christmas sweater with shorts.
Christmas sweaters were kind of like the annual Waterford Christmas ornament, you added one to your collection every year. They were relatively expensive so the smart collector might wait for after Christmas sales and hope the coveted sweater was still on the rack. Of course, then you had to wait eleven months to get to wear it. No one ever wore a Christmas sweater before Thanksgiving or after December 25th.
Now there are office parties whose themes involve "tacky Christmas sweaters." Lucky millenials have moms who could not bear throwing away their Christmas sweaters, unlucky ones search second hand thrift shops. There is even an eBay market for gaudy sweaters of red or green adorned with ribbon and snowmen and decorated trees. The more garish your sweater the more likely you are to win the prize for the worst Christmas sweater.
Well, all I can say is that winning sweater was once loved by someone who wore it and thought they looked terrific in it. And when they "come back" I'll be ready...I have my favorite two or three tucked away on a shelf in my closet just waiting.
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