Tis the season! Miley Cyrus, Gwen Stefani, David Beckham, Matt Damon and more celebrities have been known to grab their ugliest holiday sweaters for the festive season. From pop-culture-inspired ones to challah-bread toppers, they’re all pretty fantastic — in the most delightfully hideous way.
Taylor Swift, for one, encouraged guests at her 30th birthday party in December 2019 to lean into the Christmas theme. The pop star, Antoni Porowski, Halsey and more famous attendees sported ugly sweaters for the star-studded event. “Happy birthday but make it Santa,” the Grammy winner captioned a series of Instagram photos.
“Honestly spending my 30th with the fans who have made my life what it is at jingle ball, then throwing the most aggressive holiday party known to womankind… I just.. seriously feel so lucky for you all and will spend forever trying to find ways to say thank you. *cries in Christmas tree,” Swift wrote of another set of pics from the shindig.
Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest showed off their own takes on the trend for their Live With Kelly and Ryan “Holiday Sweater Party” in December 2019 in celebration of National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day. “Who are you calling ugly?” the All My Children alum asked. “If loving this sweater is wrong, I don’t want to be right.”
The American Idol host then explained the origin of the holiday: “So the history of this is, this began way back in 2011.”
However, Ripa disputed the idea that their sweaters — which featured a dog and a drummer with movable attachments — were ugly. “I would say it began way before that because if you’ve grown up in my house, we always had a holiday sweater,” she chimed in. “We used to call them holiday sweaters, we would never call them ugly sweaters because we wore them year-round.”
Seacrest agreed that there was no need to “use the ‘u’ word,” adding: “These are charming sweaters. These actually say that we’re happy people.” Ripa ultimately declared their festive tops “magic.”
Scroll through the gallery below to see photos of stars wearing their favorite Christmas sweaters — and decide whether the getups should be deemed ugly!