To Find Christmas Jumpers Morally Abhorrent?

[MitziK]

Why has this become a thing? Spend twenty-plus quid so everybody can see you're 'doing it for charity', when what you are actually doing is spunking cash on something you will wear for between 1 and 5 days in a year before dumping it in the back of the wardrobe or binning it to buy another one next year?

People who can't afford that twenty pound feel under pressure/disapproval for 'not joining in, it's FOR CHARITY'. Somebody makes a hell of a lot of money for the jumpers and chucks a couple of quid at most to a charity. You've just given them TWO QUID, that's all. The seller still has eighteen quid of your money and you still look like a twat.

If somebody wants to do something for charity, wear your usual jumper, take that twenty quid you would have wasted on some synthetic monstrosity with bells or reindeer ears and buy some food to shove in the collection bins for the local foodbank, don't take fucking photos with all your mates wearing disposable jumpers, thinking you're Really Making a Difference.

Surely if you don't like them you just don't wear them and leave people who do to make their decision. I personally don't own one but I don't take issue with anyone wanting to. It brings some cheer and bonding.

And as for using the environment as your reason where so you start and stop on that, wedding dresses? Suits for men who only wear them to weddings? Interview outfits?

You come across as very judgemental and controlling.

Its the school jumper days that piss me off...families struggling and yet another expense.

agree completely malificent re: school jumper days. Puts struggling families in a difficult position.

In terms of waste - I wouldn't buy one that wouldn't be serviceable as a general winter garment.

I agree that they can contribute to the fast fashion culture, which I hate. But I think that people who are happy to throw away and rebuy each year are also likely to do the same with other clothes too. I felt under pressure from work to join in, which I hated. I buy the majority of my clothes in charity shops, so I was delighted to find one in my local FARA a couple of years back. Work happy, and I donated to charity in full! Although we also had to pay £5 to wear one to work... and put under pressure to do so... Which seemed unfair.

You sound absolutely miserable OP. Nothing is worse than a combination of someone who thinks she's moral and who has no money to spare so she uses the excuse to ban everything. And FYI you can find jumpers in the charity shop too.

It depends what sort of Christmas jumper you mean.

For example, I've got some lovely wintery jumpers with snowflakes on or fair isle and they get worn right the late autumn/winter time. I get them out each year and pack them away when I get my summer dresses out. Im sure they're not to everyone's taste but I like them.

Then there's the annual "tacky/funny" purchases complete with flashing lights. They seem to be very much in the buy now, wear once or twice and then bin and get a new one next year. They seem to me to be in the same category of the endless Pudsey onesies/headbands, comic relief t shirts etc in that it's tat people buy for a charity day, take a few photos and then discard. I don't like that sort of approach to charity because it's surely better to donate £20 to charity than spend £15 on a jumper or tatty merchandise and then donate a few quid to wear said tat.

You can buy them for less than a tenner. Anyway, you could say that about literally anything that gets used a few times a year, anything for charity, seasonal or themed.
Also, ‘morally abhorrent’ 😂😂😂

I bought one for DD from a charity shop (doing my bit for the red cross) It cost me £2.

Look what you did to my feed .....

I only opened up the bread too!

Thread! Silly spell check

OP must be off Christmas jumper shopping now we've swayed her opinion

Op you are so virtuous, we can only aspire to be as wonderful as you

YANBU.

Because nothing screams "festive" more than a cheap piece of acrylic (plastic), mass produced in a polluting factory in the developing world.

The concept of thinking of people less fortunate than yourself at Christmas is a sound one. But it's the idea of having to have/buy a certain piece of equipment to do that which is bonkers. Just have a charity collection at work or school. Or a dress down day.

Why are you assuming the jumpers are binned? I remember always getting mine from a charity shop second hand for less than £5.
Then it would go back to another charity shop for someone else to buy next year. And I’d buy another already worn jumper.

School Christmas Jumper days should be done away with. Not fair to add another pressure to families at an already expensive time of year.

I think you do have a point in relation to people who buy new and only wear them a few times.

@HopefullyAnonymous Yes I have the ad too! There again, when there was a thread about drink driving the Lexus ad popped up...

Adults may reuse their christmas jumpers for decades.

Children however grow. Our school runs a second hand jumper shop with proceeds to school funds and have canned the annual "event" where everyone has to wear a jumper. But you only need to look at threads about charity shops and hand me downs to see that a lot of people have serious issues about anything second hand.

If you want to buy a Christmas jumper, crack on. But it's the idea that the only way of supporting charity at this time of year is not only to give money, but to buy a product which you probably don't want, don't need, and is cheaply produced by the fast fashion industry in most cases. Save the Children should be ashamed of themselves. You don't "make the world better with a sweater".

I think very few people buy new and only wear them a few times. And if they do that with Christmas jumpers then they probably do it with other clothing too.

I live in Scotland and I'm that you know people who wear jumpers 2 to 3 times per week for months. It gets pretty chilly up here but I don't know anyone who wears jumpers that regularly.

Some people clearly buy a Christmas jumper and wear it multiple times a year for years and years until it wears out.

But many people don't.

My SIL buys a jumper for each of her 3 children every year so they could wear it on "Christmas jumper day" at school. None of them habitually wore jumpers so it literally go worn for one day. If she was lucky it fitted them the next year and there was some element of "hand-me-downs" but in general she was buying jumpers to wear once or twice. I presume this is the sort of person OP is talking about?

I've seen the same sort of behaviour on "costume" days at school where parents buy a costume for the one day, and it's never worn again (granted in some cases it's passed on to another child).

I'm with you OP. Not a big fan of them especially the pressure to put DCs in them for school events. I would much rather buy a generic snuggly jumper.

I have had the same Christmas jumper for around 10 years. I bought it from the sale rack in Tesco for under a tenner. I also have a Christmas t shirt bought again from Tesco for a couple of quid off the sale rack.
I start wearing them at the beginning of December and put them away again in the new year and they should still be going strong in another 10 years.

Anyone looking for a cheap Christmas jumper. Everything5pounds has some decent ones for you guessed it £5
www.everything5pounds.com/en/search/?q=%3AbestSeller&text=Christmas+jumper

I’ve had the same Christmas jumper for about 6 or 7 years and I wear it probably twice a week in December so I’ve had plenty of wear out of it, I love Christmas jumpers!

I do know what you mean. My husband needs one for work this year. He will never wear it outside work and it's money we could better spend elsewhere.
The kids' are still going strong and I'm going to wear last year's.

But what does your SIL do with them afterwards? Does she pass them on to other family members or put them in to a charity shop? If so then their usage continues and the jumpers become more affordable, and the charity shop benefits from income and gift aid.