Courtesy of Mike Golomb
Event organizer Mike Golomb, founder of Ugly Sweater Store, recently rolled out Santa sweaters with a built-in pocket for an adult beverage.
Your ugly sweater could help break a world record this Saturday at Ballpark Village. The entertainment center will be hosting the 2nd Annual World's Largest Ugly Sweater Party at 8 p.m. In order to break the current record, held by a group based in Kansas City, 3,400 people will need to come out in their worst holiday garb.
The party is the brain child of Mike Golomb, the founder of Ugly Sweater Store. “About six or seven years ago, I got invited to an ugly Christmas sweater party, and I could not find a sweater,” he said during a brief break from (what else?) packing sweaters.
Golomb recalls, after years of mocking his mother, a kindergarten teacher, for her hideous holiday apparel, asking her, “All those sweaters I made fun of you for? I need to borrow one.”
She later bought 30 sweaters at Goodwill for $2 each, which Golomb then sold online for a tidy profit. Ugly Sweater Store was born.
Golomb began by sourcing the vintage sweaters from several different places. Today, much of his business is wholesale. “It’s kind of just exploded,” he says of the business, which he describes as “a month and a half of pure insanity.”
New this year: imported and non-vintage Santa sweaters with a built-in pocket for an adult beverage (see photo).
The event at Ballpark Village seemed like a natural extension of the business. “We decided, ‘Hey, why not throw a big party?'" says Golomb. "'Everyone likes it.’” Last year, the event broke the existing world record. But while he was completing the paperwork, a group from Kansas City shattered that record.
Record aside, the event on Saturday will include multiple Santas, jugglers, fire throwers, and ice luges. Operation Food Search will also be collecting canned goods. If you have your own sweater, you can get into the party for $8. A ticket includes a Santa hat, discounted drinks, photo booths, and entertainment. For $30, you can receive all that and a sweater.
Golomb says his parents will be on hand for the party, too, and his mother will hopefully get in a few zingers. “I still get nonstop crap from her,” he says.
