Ugly Christmas Sweaters, Charlie Brown Trees Are A Thing This Year, Apparently

This guy is a major trendsetter
this Christmas season.  

I guess it's a trend I can embrace.

The Big Things at Christmas this year, at least two of them anyway, are hideous Christmas sweaters and Charlie Brown trees.

I like to think it's a rebellion against the societal demands that you MUST make Christmas elaborate, absolutely perfect and way, way over your budget.

If you don't do these things, you are an absolute scumbag, at least in the eyes of the marketers who want you to spend, spend SPEND at Christmas.

Ever notice that after every Christmas season, retailers are "disappointed" in sales. You didn't give them enough of your hard earned money, you morons!

Thoughtful but inexpensive gifts and activities need not apply, apparently.

But then there are the people armed with seasonal sweaters with badly rendered reindeer sewed on, and annoying jingle bells ringing with your every move as you gather around the half dead, listing Christmas tree.

Out in Fort Collins, Colorado, somebody found a way to capitalize on the anti-perfection Christmas movement by opening an ugly Christmas sweater thrift store. 

According to Consumerist and CBS Denver, Ugly Christmas Sweaters, or UCS's, are big sellers, says Nancy Agnew, the owner of the store.

"When the store opened it had 4,000 sweaters in stock, with prices ranging from the very modest $3 up to $43, reports CBS Denver. The owner says she's now selling about 150 sweaters every day.

She got the idea after working at another thrift store and seeing that people really, really liked buying UCSs. So she planned this sumer, washed and hot glue-gunned stuff, then opened up in the fall. She has plans to expand to Denver and Boulder, to spread the ugly joy there."

Oh, great, I see a nationwide UCS empire starting here.

Maybe we'll all be required to don we now our ugly apparel every Christmas season. That could be another reason to dread the holidays.

If that's the case, you can drown your sorrows in the weak glow of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

Those, too are a hot commodity.   

This little guy is a trendsetter, too, with his
somewhat unsuccessful little Christmas tree.  

For those unfamiliar with the concept, Charlie Brown Christmas trees are from the Charlie Brown Christmas special, in which Charlie obtains a tree that is not exactly the most beautiful in the world as he disastrously tries to free himself from a holiday funk.

NPR also got a big response when they put out a call to listeners for some of the most impressively bad Charlie Brown trees.

People have quite a history of bad holiday trees, apparently. Not as bad as a battered pink plastic one I saw in a window recently, but you get the idea.

I guess we should just embrace the tacky. It's more fun than trying to be Martha Stewart all the time. Makes you less crabby, too, being tacky and not perfect.

My husband Jeff and me have taken the tacky tack, at least to an extent.


At recent Yankee swap Christmas parties we offered gifts of a squeezable Minion from "Despicable Me" and Hello Kitty and Duck Dynasty Chia Pets.

Really, have yourself a tasteless little Christmas. It's more fun that way.

Charlie Brown Christmas Tree Has No Place In Reading, Pa.

This "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree in Reading, PA.
is going to be removed in favor of a better one,
says the city. Photo from WFMZ-TV.  

If you have a soft spot for Charlie Brown Christmas trees, you know, the rather sad, pathetic one Charlie Brown befriends in the holiday special, don't go to Reading, Pennsylvania.

The city put up a Christmas tree, as many municipalities do, but it got complaints immediately.

It was not big and bushy like a traditional tree, but kind of lacking in branches and greenery and vigor.

It's going to go, Reading officials said, according to television station WFMZ in Allentown.

There's been a big fundraiser going on to raise $5,000 for a new tree to be put up for another tree lighting ceremony next weekend.

The tree was the target of LOTS of insults, says WFMZ:

"'I know Reading is not doing too great,' one man who works near the tree told the news station. 'But facing this tree up here is making it even worse.'

'If I were a squirrel looking for a home for the winter, I wouldn't even go in that tree,' said another."

Consumerist says the city was to have gotten a nice tree from a farmer, but then there was a bunch of rain and the farmer wouldn't let any heavy equipment through to get the tree. So the city basically cut down the first tree they saw in a city park and went with it.

But, as I said, a nicer tree is on the way. I kind of hope some kind soul adopts the city's 50-foot Charlie Brown tree, though.

Charlie Brown trees might not be popular in Reading, Pennsylvania, but they certainly are elsewhere.

I'm stunned by the number of outfits that sell Charlie Brown trees. Apparently, outfits like Kohls and Home Depot sell tons of them. Go figure.

Charlie Brown's Christmas Comes To Life!

Here's a fun little seasonal video: Almost everybody knows that dance scene in the Charlie Brown Christmas special.  (For some reason I especially like the way the twins dance)

A flash mob recently brought the Charlie Brown dance scene to life in New York City.

Smiles ensue: