It is almost a tradition when the holidays come around. Looking around, the various shades of greens and reds can sometimes be jarring and other times inspirational. For the most part though, they are considered ugly… ugly Christmas sweaters to be exact. While Christmas sweaters can be bought at any local store, it is more meaningful when made by hand.

To make this particular Christmas Sweater, one will need: a green or red long sleeve shirt, different colors of felt, silver leaves, gems, stickers, bells and a hot glue. However, the creator is not limited to these supplies. In fact, they are encouraged to broaden their creative spirit and make any sweater to their liking.

Spread the shirt out onto a large surface, and plug in the hot glue gun so that it will warm up. The felt can be used to make stencils of Christmas trees, gingerbread men, reindeer, snowmen, etc.

For the snowman, trace out a snowman on any felt color using a stencil or any rounded object. Cut the snowman out. Then, using a black colored fuzzy sock or black felt, cut out a top hat design. The nose can be made using either orange colored felt or a triangle shaped sticker.

The bells can be placed along the collar of the shirt in order to make the perfect jingle or all throughout the shirt.

Once they have been placed in a design of one’s choosing, paste the items onto the shirt using the warmed up hot glue gun.

In total, the ugly Christmas sweater looks nice and can be worn on anything especially as it is not really a sweater, but a shirt. The sleeves of the sweater can be cut shorter or into a cute design such as zig-zagged edges. This can also be done to the sweater itself to make it a crop top or to just shorten it.

The design can be as ugly or as pretty as one wants to make it and is perfect for the holiday season to cuddle up in the comforts of the house or to go out with friends. While called ugly “Christmas” sweaters, they can be made for any occasion such as Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or just for the holidays itself.