Fashion Fun Friday: #UglyChristmasSweaterDay

Posted in christmas, Fashion by Nyree Costello

Well this blog has become the mechanic’s car that never get’s fixed. But today is Fashion Fun Friday AND #UglyChristmasSweaterDay – the perfect day to get back to blogging!

National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day, celebrated since 2011 on the third Friday of December, is one of my favourite days of the holiday season. And according to Bloomberg Business, it’s become a booming business with the number of new businesses increasing every year along with the demand. Retail stores report that the sale of Christmas sweaters has reached the same heights as the 1980s!!! (Will be hair be next? She asks in a hopeful tone…)

Google reports that searches for “Ugly Christmas Sweater” is up 30% over last year (source: inventors.about.com). There are a ton of online shops that offer these sweaters and as this trend continues to grow, the cost for these sweet babies grows too. Websites dedicated to the Ugly Christmas Sweater have spread across the internet. Thrift shops can’t stock enough of them. Ebay has seen record prices set on the sale of vintage Christmas sweaters, collectors are now willing to spend hundreds of dollars. So what’s a girl to do in all this madness? Get creative and make your own.

#DYK: The official #UglyChristmasSweaterParty began in 2002 in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada)? What started as a house party by friends, Jordan Birch and Chris Boyd, has grown into The Ugly Christmas Sweater Party(TM) an annual fundraiser for the Children’s Wish Foundation celebrating its 14th year!

Step 1: Go to local thrift shop and find hideous sweater – doesn’t have to be a Christmas one. Or use an existing sweater. Or hit one of many mainstream retailers and buy one as your launch pad. You may already have an idea of what you want to create, or maybe the idea will come from the sweater.

Step 2: WASH THE SWEATER. Because you know, cooties.

Step 3: Decorate the sweater. Need inspiration? Pinterest is full of ideas! From Grumpy Cat to the Grinch:

And check out this sweet creation that one of my coworkers broke out today! There’s even candy canes in the outer stockings – yum!

And finally this brilliant idea found on today.com:

So what are you waiting for? Get cracking. Ugly Christmas Sweater Day isn’t over yet.

12Dec2014

Fashion Fun Friday: Ugly Christmas Sweater Day

Posted in christmas, Fashion by Nyree Costello

Happy #UglyChristmasSweaterDay!

Last year I wrote about the challenges of finding the perfect ugly Christmas sweater. I had searched high and low at thrift shops, discount stores and even my mother’s closet with no success. I had highlighted the many online stores that offered the best of the uglies such as TheSweaterStore.com and MyUglyChristmasSweater.com.

This year, retailers have finally gotten wise to the demand for tacky holiday sweaters and started mass producing a wide variety of choices. H&M, Forever 21, Macy’s (for my US friends) and even Walmart are offering cutesie tacky sweaters.

While I agree that half the fun is trolling the aisles at your local Sally Anne or Value Village to find the perfect one, if you need a sweater in a pinch, hitting the mall instead of the thrift shops is going to net you a better success rate. I grabbed this one for $20 at Walmart:

Here’s a couple other cutesie options that you can easily grab online or at your local mall:

H&M Fine Knit Sweater $19.95

Forever 21 Puppy Holiday Sweater $23.90

24Dec2013

Picture Perfect Tuesdays: Rocking Around The Christmas Tree

Posted in christmas, Lifestyle, Lifestyles, Picture Perfect Tuesdays by Nyree Costello

Is your fridge covered in Christmas photo cards? Mine is! I love getting these because in the age of digital photography we rarely seem to print anything anymore. We now gather around the computer to look at pictures, rather than a photo album.

In honour of Christmas being tomorrow (cue the panicking..) this week’s Picture Perfect Tuesday is a Christmas Card that I created for shits and giggles of the hubby and I in front of the White House Christmas Tree…

23Dec2013

WestJet Christmas Miracle

Posted in christmas, Communications, pr by Nyree Costello

Over the years I’ve seen some good and bad PR stunts. For example in 2011, South Australia’s Advantage SA sent 55 gold fish to media executives as part of a tour with the message: “Be a big fish in a small pond and come and test the water.” Cool idea right? Well, despite providing enough food for each fish for six months most fish were dead on arrival. Ouch.

Anyone else remember the fake fan site (www.alliwantforxmasisapsp.com) that Sony created in 2006 to create buzz for the PlayStation PSP? It didn’t end well…. Gamers found out and hammered Sony on legitimate message boards.

Well there are also some PR stunts that are done well. Very well. Iwanted to share this one from WestJet as it’s a great idea that was successfully delivered and shared. It focuses on giving back to their customers, and yes, while it’s a PR piece, it really did happen… Plus it made me teary-eyed and filled with joy…

20Dec2013

Fashion Fun Friday: Christmas Jammies

Posted in christmas, Communications, Fashion by Nyree Costello

Growing up we always got a new pair of jammies for Christmas. It was the one gift my sister and I were allowed to open on Christmas eve – and we’d immediately put them on. Not sure if the tradition was born because my mother wanted us to look good in photos as we opened up our gifts, but having matching Christmas pajamas added a feeling of festivity. We’ve had matching night gowns, flannels and footies over the years, but none ever matched the hilarity of Ralphie’s Pink Bunny PJs from the movie A Christmas Story:

Fun Pajama Fact: The word “pyjama” traces its etymological origin to the Persian word “payjama,” meaning “leg garment.”

I’ve often wondered if other families had this tradition and was pleasantly surprised that many do! As an adult, I sometimes still get a set of flannel jam-jams from my mom, but all-in-all that family tradition faded away after we left the nest some 20 years ago… However, I think that there is a surge in old holiday traditions (see my post on the rise of the Ugly Christmas Sweater); and a quick Google search will bring you a plethora places to buy matching Christmas jammies.

I’ll leave you with this fun holiday message (and great PR stunt!) from the Holderness family that’s been making headlines and making Christmas jammies cool again….

12Dec2013

Company Christmas Party Etiquette

Posted in christmas, Communications, pr by Nyree Costello

Ahhh the company Christmas party. Once upon a time, the company Christmas party was an office party with staff in Santa hats and Christmas sweaters guzzling spiked eggnog and behaving inappropriately in the photocopy room.

While most of us know the obvious things NOT to do at a company Christmas party, like lip-locking with our coworkers and photocopy our butts to give out as ‘presents’, the very nature of the company Christmas party has changed. Contrary to popular belief, your company Christmas party is NOT the time to let loose and party with your coworkers.

Here’s the thing. No matter how festive the occasion, a company Christmas party is still about business. And if you make an ass out of yourself, you could easily ruin your hard-earned professional reputation.

I don’t mean to sound like a Grinch here, you can still eat drink, be merry and all that jazz, just in moderation. (Save the cutting loose for the after-party.) While it might seem like a good idea to saddle up to the bar a few times, you don’t want to say or do anything stupid that you’ll need to apologize for later.

Seems pretty obvious, yes?

For women, the eternal question of what to wear is more important than ever. Here’s a solid piece of advice from most career experts: A company Christmas party is NOT the place to strut your stuff. Do yourself a favour and leave anything short, tight, sexy and/or revealing in your closet. Ho Ho Ho! Don’t dress like a ho! Keep ‘the girls’ under wraps. Not saying that you have to dress like a nun, but think about what your wardrobe choice is saying. You’ve worked hard to create a professional image, and revealing clothes can alter your coworkers’ and manager’s perception of you as a competent professional.

So now you are dressed festively, but professionally. You had one cocktail and are ready to… MINGLE. Even though it’s a party, it’s a company party, so work the room. Chat with people you don’t typically interact with daily. Making conversation is the key to shining like a Christmas star at the office party. In fact, this is a great time to introduce yourself to the CEO and/or VPs. How often do you get the opportunity to chat with these people? You may be surprised to learn how much you have in common.

It should also go without saying to make sure to thank the people who organized the party. Not only is saying thank you the nice thing to do, but it also makes you stand out from the many employees who don’t. And finally, don’t leave without saying “goodbye”. It’s not only polite but necessary.

I leave you with a survey about company Christmas parties:

5Dec2013

Fashion Fun Friday: Ugly Holiday Sweaters

Posted in christmas, Fashion, Lifestyle, Lifestyles by Nyree Costello

Have you noticed the increasing trend in Ugly Sweater themed parties? How did all this craziness start? I blame Bill Cosby with his crazy patterned sweaters for making these sweaters mainstream in the 80s. The revival among younger people throwing ugly Christmas sweater parties, according to Time Magazine, started as a way for young adults to mock their parents’ love of festive looks and thought the sweaters were (gasp) cute.

However the history of the first ugly sweater party can be traced back to 2002 in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada) where two friends, Jordan Birch and Chris Boyd, decided to host one at their house. Now celebrating their 12th event, this once small house party is now the official The Ugly Christmas Sweater Party(TM) – an annual fundraiser for the Children’s Wish Foundation. Their motto: Be Ugly. Do Good. Connect. Give. Reconnect & Be Kind.

Despite the popularity of these parties, it’s surprisingly hard to find a good ugly sweater these days. While it can be argued that one person’s perception of ugly is another person’s beautiful, when it comes to finding an ugly holiday sweater it seems that we all are seeking the same thing. That tacky sweater that you perhaps once owned in the 80s because you got it as a gift and your mom wouldn’t let you throw it out. In fact she may have even been the one who bought it for you. Although it is pretty safe to assume that these ugly sweaters were designed with the original intention of being attractive. So begs the question: Which came first, the sweater or the ugly?

Determined to be successful this year, I set out once again in search of the perfect ugly sweater at the usual places: thrift shops such as Value Village, the Salivation Army and the like. Nada. Zip. Zero. The problem with searching “the usual places” is that this is where everyone else is looking too. So either everyone has already cleaned them out long ago or there are just no ugly holiday sweaters to be found. Have we actually run out of tacky leftovers from the 80s??? Where does one find an ugly holiday sweater these days??

Turns out there are now entire stores dedicated to the ugly sweater. In fact when I went online to see where I could find one of these tacky gems, I only had to type the word ‘ugly’ for Google to immediately return the suggestion of “ugly Christmas sweater”! Here’s what I found:

TheSweaterStore.com has a slew of ugly sweaters ripe for the picking. They promote themselves as having “The World’s Largest Selection of Ugly Christmas Sweaters.” Like this one:

Not to be outdone, MyUglyChristmasSweater.com boasts having a large selection of tacky 80s sweaters. They do. Check out this beauty:

And then there is Canadian retailer HolidayRejects.ca who not only offers a selection of ugly Christmas sweaters, but LED light kits to add some extra ‘pizzazz’ to one you may already have.

And then there is TipsyElves.com. This site has some cheeky tacky sweaters with reindeer in compromising positions and gingerbread men fearing for their lives…

Now when you find yourself with an invitation to an ugly sweater party, you’ll be set! Be Ugly. Do Good. Connect. Give. Reconnect & Be Kind. Happy Holidays.

The Publicist Diaries

A Shameless Act of Self Promotion!

Category Archives: christmas