Christmas sweaters come out of the nation's darkest closet corners after Thanksgiving, right along the time when people buy Christmas trees. Few garments have been exposed to as much scorn, yet remained such a popular tradition.

The key is the gaudier, the better. Explosive shades of greens and reds that make you ill at ease, blinking LED lights, feathers and tassels, appliqués of rosy Santa noses, 3-D-style plush reindeer heads, jingling bells, shoulder pads — bring it on!

It's hard to tell exactly when the Christmas sweater was born. There are knitting patterns of snowy pines dating back to the 1950s, the era when the commercialization of Christmas really took off. That's when people got into decorating their homes with ornaments, and songs like "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" became massive hits. So, it's safe to say that the sweaters have been around for that long.

After decades of ridicule by the fashion-conscious, the Christmas sweater is striking back. In the last few years, work parties and online sweater parties have become more and more popular, where people throw "ugliest" contests and flood Facebook with photographic proof.

Maybe you've been invited to a sweater party or contest and you actually don't own a Christmas sweater? Worry not. These things have become a serious business venture for some people. eBay has an entire section dedicated to ugly Christmas sweaters, and there are several other online stores that are intent to find the scariest designs that have ever been made.

If you prefer to shop local, thrift stores usually are a great place to find them cheap. But you better hurry up, as the very few thrift stores that exist in our neighborhood are running out of sweaters.

"We get our sweaters in November, and they have all the typical Christmas motifs: the Rudolph's and the Santas ... you name it. But they're pretty much gone now," said Jonathan Chandler, store manager at The Bible Tabernacle Thrift Store in Marina del Rey.

After checking in with the Goodwill Donation Center in Playa del Rey, we were told that they didn't even receive any donations of Christmas sweaters. People must be aware of the new fad and now they're holding on to them.

You could get one of the very few models available at M Fredric and Express in Marina del Rey. They go for about $90. Beware though, these aren't wacky enough to appall your co-workers.

So here's a fun last resort. Why not get really creative and design your own sweater? It's not hard.

Start off with a tomato-red sweatshirt (the crafty mom's choice.) Go to Graphaids' crafts store (close to Otis College), and buy some tubes of glitter and the Stencil1 holiday packet of stencils, where you get a snowflake, a snowy pine, pinecones and a caribou. You can also get a stencil with a big angel.

Be really generous with the glitter.

Maybe your grandmother has some appliqués laying around the house that you can sew on. Don't worry if you're bad at sewing. Poor construction skills will make your sweater even more special! If you're really challenged by needles and threads, just glue everything on, and bedazzle your competitors.