Sunday, December 4, 2011

How to Throw an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

What do you get when you take a really ugly Christmas sweater, some excessively tacky holiday accessories, and multiply them by a whole bunch? You get an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party! I'm going to show you how my friend Christy and I put an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party for our MOPS group.

After choosing a date and sending out an Evite (which, by the way, had an actual "Ugly Sweater Party" design!), our first step was to find some delightfully ugly sweaters before the local thrift stores were sold out. Ugly Sweater parties are all the rage these days and tacky stuff goes fast!

We landed our sweaters at a Salvation Army not too far from my house. Neither of us spent more than $5 on our sweaters...but we spent a lot of time making sure they got cleaned really really well! We were also giddy when we saw the vast array of Tackiness on display at our local Wal-Marts--sweater vests, turtlenecks, light-up necklaces, you name it! We stocked up on turtlenecks and accessories at WM, The Dollar Tree, and the Claire's store at the mall:























Yes, that is tinsel wrapped around my leg and I am wearing Christmas socks with my (genuinely cute) Tartan plaid flats:























Lucky for us, our friend Stephanie agreed to host the party this year. We also opted to make the party a potluck, since the group was large. We asked guests to bring an appetizer or dessert to share, and we brought drinks and paper products. Stephanie's house was decorated for Christmas to get everyone in the holiday spirit, and she found an awesome Christmas music station on cable to play some festive tunes as guests arrived and chatted:























The absolute best part of the party was hearing the doorbell ring and seeing ladies come through the door in all their tacky glory!


We wanted a really low-key party, so when guests were finished eating, we had each mom introduce herself and name her favorite Christmas movie...favorites ranged from Elf to Miracle on 34th Street. I did some Googling and had a fun Christmas Trivia Quiz before the big Tacky Fashion Show!

Yes, we made every single guest walk the "runway" so that the moms could vote for Tackiest Dressed. The winner received a Fruit Cake (wrapped in tissue paper secured with a hair band--got to keep the tacky theme) and also a $25 Gift Card to Charming Charlie. We figured that the winner was so tacky looking, she needed to go shopping for a whole new look. {wink}

It was so cool to see the ladies be such good sports about the party theme. Most of the moms really got into it, and we had all sorts of flashing lights, rhinestones, and glitter on display. The winning look sported high-waisted, plaid wool pants, suspenders, acrylic rhinestone heels with Christmas socks, and an elf hat that wiggled mechanically and played music!





















This was, hands down, one of the most fun Christmas parties I have ever been to. You can guarantee yourself a night of laughs with an Ugly Christmas Sweater theme!

Linking to Home Stories A to Z.

24 comments:

  1. I love it! I've wanted to do this. . . you have inspired me for next year! AND I really love your flats -so cute ;)

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  2. This looks like so much fun! Each and every lady there looks like she's having a blast.

    Side note: Do you know that many teachers dress this way on a normal basis in the days leading up to Christmas? It's all I can do not to choke some days when I see those sweaters!

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  3. Everyone looks so festive!!! What a great theme for a party too..although, now when I see people wearing those frocks for real, I will be thinking of your party :)

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  4. LOVE it! You all look so festive! I love a good ugly Christmas sweater party! So much that I finally started my own ugly Christmas sweater shop on Etsy. Looks like you guys had a blast!

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  5. That sounds like so much fun, Amanda!

    I had a Christmas vest many years ago that I absolutely loved. It was from Talbot's--a really lovely piece of clothing in its time, back when my boys were little. It was so nice, in fact, that I could never bring myself to part with it. And then a couple of years ago my oldest son Will, then a freshman in college, called and said, "Mom, do you have a tacky Christmas sweater I could borrow?" The Campus Crusade group at Duke had tacky sweater party for Christmas. Now, Will is my small-sized son--my other boys both tower above me, but Will could wear my sweater. So he wore my beautiful vest to that party and he WON! Oh, my precious Talbot's Christmas sweater!! :)

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  6. so hilarious my friend, I would love to throw or be invited to one of these, so fun!!!
    xo
    K

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  7. We have our second annual ugly sweater party this weekend for our church, I'm going to direct people here for inspiration! :-)

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  8. Hilarious! Looks like y'all had a great time.

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  10. That was too funny!!!! I bet you all had a good time and laugh!!!

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  11. We had one last year and it was hysterical! A few of the guys wore fake Tom selleck mustaches! This year's ugly sweater party is Saturday! I'll be posting all about it! Here's a link to some of our funny photos
    http://fisilis.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/the-bad-sweater-party/

    Thanks for sharing!
    XO
    Mindy

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  12. Heehee! That looks like SO MUCH FUN! The winner's hat is hilarious. :-) So now that the party is over what will you do with your sweater? :-) Maybe you can recycle it in some nifty way? Haha! Take care :-)

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  13. First, those shoes of yours are seriously too cute. Love them!

    How fun! I should throw an ugly sweater party next year. I'm in a dinner club and it'd be fun to do it with all those ladies. It is funny that there's women out there who were those hideous things for real! I can imagine I'll see one on my daughter's kindergarten teacher soon. She's about the right age. heehee

    Thanks for a laugh this morning, Amanda!

    ~ Catie

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  14. What fun! And what a great turnout you had! It sounds like a totally fun party for this hectic time of year

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  15. How fun is this!?!? I've been seeing them going on around blog land, but haven't got to have or attend one myself yet. Thanks for the fun ideas!!!

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  16. SO fun! I can't say I've ever been to one, but this is awesome. Mostly I love your corkscrew ribbon :)

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  17. Oh how fun! Looks like you had a delightfully tacky time. :) Shopping for all of that stuff must be just as fun as the actual party, I bet!

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  18. Oh my goodness some of those outfits are hilarious! How fun! I bet you guys had some good laughs :)

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  19. I saw this from Home Stories, and just had to read. I just posted on my blog today about the Ugly Sweater Party I threw this weekend! Yours looks like a blast. I love how your friends went all out!

    Here's the link to my post if you're interested!http://www.familyeverafterblog.com/2011/12/ugly-christmas-sweater-party-ideas.html

    Also, I'm having an ugly sweater link party contest. I REALLY hope you'll link this up!
    http://www.familyeverafterblog.com/2011/11/ugly-christmas-sweater-shindig-link.html

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  20. I SO want to do this. The shoes sold me. What a fun group of friends!
    :) Samantha

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  21. this seriously looks like the funnest thing ever!

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  22. Amanda that looks like such a fun time! I love the huge plaid pants...so fun! And does one of those ladies have real Christmas lights attached to her sweater?!?

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  23. It looks like you all had a blast looking so wonderfully, gaudy! I am hosting an ugly Christmas sweater party next weekend... very excited.

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