"Best $2k I Ever Spent!" Presenting The Ugly Hanukkah Sweater

Last week, our joyous exploration of the Ugly Holiday Sweater ended on a sad note, as I lamented the serious lack of Hanukkah sweaters available to the party-going Jews (and Hanukkah enthusiasts of all religions) out there. But my tears were turned into sunshine with one email from Ramsey Mohsen, a Kansas City resident and the organizer of KC's popular Ugly Christmas Sweater Party fundraiser, which appears to be the Monterey Jazz Festival of ugly sweater parties. Ramsey, you see, has discovered a source of Hanukkah sweaters. And they are glorious.

Ramsey directed us here, where one of the sponsors of his party sells some pretty jaw-droppingly hideous Hanukkah sweaters, hats and even dresses. With weird colors, ungainly attached items, bells, and even blinking lights, these sweaters cover all the bases of what an ugly holiday sweater could hope for, only now with the added benefit of making it painfully clear to your disappointed Jewish grandparents that you will never turn out to be the doctor and/or lawyer they were hoping for.

Unfortunately, these sweaters seem to have only been on the market for about a year, meaning that our selection of action shots is somewhat slim.

So here's the challenge. Actually, two challenges:

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Challenge #1 : Get Your Hanukkah On

Let's get these beautifully ugly sweaters into the rotation. My fellow Jews, listen up: we are way too resilient as a people to let ourselves continue to be completely outdone by our gentile friends at holiday parties everywhere. Get yourself an Ugly Hanukkah Sweater, wear it with pride, and send us pictures!!!

Challenge #2 : Represent Los Angeles

With all due respect to our new best friend Ramsey and Kansas City in general, the fact that we don't have an Ugly Sweater Party that even comes close to competing with theirs is, based on population alone, slightly embarrassing.

L.A. is a city full of Persian dudes in bedazzled t-shirts and celebs rocking leopard-print Uggs; you can't tell me there's no room to celebrate the horrible things one can do with green wool. And, like Ramsey's done in KC, we can make it all go towards a noble cause: his Ugly Christmas Sweater Party has raised over $50,000 for Operation Breakthrough, an organization that supports the rights, safety and education of children living in poverty.

So let's go, L.A. Rock out with your sweaters out, and send us the photos!

Oh, and Kwanzaa, you're not off the hook, either.

[Product photos via My Ugly Christmas Sweater, party photos via Ramsey]