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I don’t know when Christmas jumpers became a ‘thing’. Certainly we never had such things when I was growing up. I guess they are a product of the ‘throw-away society’ because before that no-one would buy something that would only be worn for such a short period. Even more so for children of course as they outgrow them each year! But in the past few years they have become more and more common, and most of them are truly awful. And many people have embraced the awfulness (if that’s even a word) and actively seek out the worst examples so it’s a real race to the bottom. None of this should matter to us except that now they are so ubiquitous that everyone is automatically expected to have one. When the schools have a Christmas dinner – ‘Wear your Christmas jumpers!’ Volunteering at the theatre for the panto - ‘Wear your Christmas jumpers!’ Planning the amateur dramatics group Christmas party - ‘Wear your Christmas jumpers!’ Playing in the village band charity concert - ‘Wear your Christmas jumpers!’ The girls always had to make do with the cheeriest jumper they had, maybe with a bit of tinsel draped around it or something. But yesterday when I happened to be near the shops I popped into a charity shop to drop off a few things we don’t need, and naturally while I was there I had a look around, just in case… and then I saw that they had a few Christmas jumpers. And I thought maybe I would see if they had something suitable for the girls, since they never have one. They didn’t have anything very nice, but now I had thought of it I decided to keep looking (there were 5 or 6 charity shops to visit) and I ended up finding a nice bright red jumper with a cute penguin on the front (he even has a pom-pom hat and a fluffy scarf!) for Big One and a sort-of rusty-red colour jumper with a reindeer on the front for Little One. This one obviously had something missing from his nose, but I figured we could fix that… I brought him home and Little One herself made him a nice bright sparkly red pom-pom for a nose which I stitched on for her. Then today errands took me to a different place, and there I found a smart black jumper with sequinned penguins on it for me! So that is all we need (my partner avoids any kind of Christmas ‘do’ – or in fact any social event if possible – like the plague, so he doesn’t really need one!) The three of us are now decked out in festive jumpers for the grand total of £10, all of which went to various good causes, so that wasn’t too bad. And when they are outgrown or we need a change they can go back again for someone else to have some fun with! Do you have a Christmas jumper? All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.