Ugly Christmas Sweaters Turn A Pretty Penny

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RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

Perhaps after you'd had a few glasses of holiday brew, this next item will look better. Our last word in business is: Ugly Christmas Sweater.

While searching for a way to help her kids pay for college, Anne Marie Blackman spotted a trend she thought she might capitalize on: The holiday-themed sweaters she found online, they didn't seem ugly enough. So, she started My Ugly Christmas Sweater, Inc. for people hoping to win a prize cheese wheel for the scariest holiday sweater at a party.

Blackman says she starts with an outdated Christmas sweater, often with shoulder pads and tacky patterns, then she uglies it up.

ANNE MARIE BLACKMAN: If there's an angel sweater, I might have a 3-D angel that maybe used to be on the top of a tree and I can feed lights through it, and make it bright and attach it to a sweater.

(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)

MONTAGNE: Don't worry. If you want an ugly Hanukkah sweater Blackman's got that, too.

BLACKMAN: It's a big crafty menorah that has lights in the menorah where the candles might be. And it's a very fun sweater.

MONTAGNE: Anne Marie Blackman says she expects to sell about 2,000 sweaters this year. It turns out ugly can turn a pretty penny.

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

And I'm Linda Wertheimer.

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