Welcome to the UK’s National Christmas Jumper Day! For those (many) parts of the world where the term is a mystery –  Christmas Jumpers are sweaters that suddenly appear in Britain as the nights start to draw in and thoughts turn to Christmas festivities. Christmas Jumpers pop up everywhere – in schools, in City offices, in shops. Typically knitted in Christmassy colours, reds and greens, and adorned with Christmassy symbols such as reindeer, Santa, jingle bells and the like, there are many variations. Here are some examples (with thanks to our models):

I thought that Christmas jumpers were a uniquely British phenomenon. Until that is, that I saw the news that the World’s Largest Christmas Jumper was recently knitted in Albi, in the South of France.  It measures 8 metres by 5, and weighs more than 800 kilos, so I think you’ll agree that it merits its XXL label. 300 members of local knitting clubs took 3850 hours to hand knit it. It has been exhibited in the town, and submitted for inclusion in the Guinness Book of Records. What a shame it’s unlikely to be worn to any Christmas parties. The plan is to take it apart in a few months time, and sell the small squares for charity. (I wonder if someone will pay extra to get Rudolf’s nose?)