Does anyone remember when a Christmas Jumper was...

[BecomeStronger]

The one your nan/mum knitted you as a Christmas present?

This is what it meant for for the largest proportion of my life. Someone turns up for work/school in a new sweater in January and it would be "love the Christmas jumper" often sarcastically

It's only gained the current meaning in the last decade or so, I think.

Well it was always the big joke but never hadcibe knotted for me! I remember teachers wearing them.
Now it's for charity at school or work , right? Can't imagine anyone wearing one just to wear.

One knitted- jeez!

I don't remember them being a 'thing' at all in my childhood. Offhand I'd say they've only sprung up in the last 20 years.

@WitchesSpelleas

I don't remember them being a 'thing' at all in my childhood. Offhand I'd say they've only sprung up in the last 20 years.

Christmas jumpers as in ones with a festive design didn't exist, but the term was used to mean a perfectly ordinary jumper, usually hand knitted, that you'd gained as a Christmas present.

The Bridget Jones film was the first time I saw the festive-y type ones.

Agree, OP. Like the Weasley's traditional jumpers knitted by Molly.

No, festive jumpers definitely existed, although they were often hand knitted, but they were worn by dorky uncles. Or your nan would get out her white jumper with sparkles for snow and a sequinned reindeer on it on Xmas day. They weren't a thing young people wore though.

I don’t remember them being a thing before the last ten years. Not like they are now.

My Grandma used to knit me a Christmas number 30 years ago, I can remember having 'The snowman' on my favourite one.

I’m 38 and definitely had Christmas jumpers growing up, they were often the 1980s sweatshirts with the rubbery printed pictures on.

I think the Bridget Jones ones were the major tipping point, coming shortly after the many kinds of novelty knitted sweaters, beloved by Sloaney types in the 1980s and which then colonised daytime telly

I remember getting a yearly hand knitted sweater and hat or scarf but it was never referred to as a “Christmas” jumper by anyone I know. If it was referred to, it would just be “oh your auntie’s been knitting” or “you’ve got a new winter jumper”. However, the knitter in my family was incredible so you couldn’t tell it wasn’t expensive shop bought so I never had the piss taken out of me. They were bloody itchy and warm though.

Christmas jumpers have always, to my mind, been ones with a Christmas design. Bought or made. Never just a home knitted jumper. They definitely existed in the 80s but were often from markets etc and a bit naff - like those teddy bear or puppy jumpers you’d get all year round. Often it would be a sweatshirt with a penguin in a bobble hat or a polar bear or something. The first mainstream ones I saw were in the states and were quite classy, found about the time of home alone coming out - scandi and argyle patterns in creams with red, forest green or navy. Sometimes featuring a stag or snowflakes.

But I definitely disagree that a generally knitted item was called a “Christmas jumper”. It wasn’t in my experience.

Christmas themed jumpers were a big thing in the 80s.
I'd have to go back before that to my childhood to remember getting a not necessarily winter/Christmas themed jumper as a present at Christmas.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s and don't remember Christmas jumpers ever being a thing.

The first time I really heard much about them was for the annual "Christmas Jumper Day" when my younger children were at primary school - so the last 10 years or so.