A Song for Winter: Ugly Sweater

“I’m not wearing it,” William declared as he looked at the sweater on the chair in front of him. It was a completely ridiculous article of clothing and he wasn’t going to wear it. There was nothing his wife, the purple-eyed lioness Violet, could say that would make him wear it. In his mind, it would take the Allfather’s intervention to make him put on that sweater. William had to draw the line somewhere and this was the hill he was willing to die on. He had taken his stance, dug in his heels, and was ready for a fight.

 

“Oh, I think you’re going to wear it,” Violet laughed slyly as she wore her sweater. She was going to get William into that sweater no matter what. If Violet had to wear one he did too as she was not going to suffer through this embarrassment by herself. They were a couple and if one of them had to wear the sweater they both did. “Remember it isn’t me that is asking you to wear it, it's your daughter. She designed and had them made all by herself with her own allowance so we would all match as a family for the New Year’s Party.” William let out a groan as he realized that he had lost this one and was going to have to wear the sweater.

 

The sweater in question was a catastrophe of colors that didn’t go together at all. Shapes of different holiday characters from all sorts of winter traditions covered every square inch of the wool sweater. Bells had been sewn onto all sides of the sweater so it was impossible for the wearer of this woolen atrocity to move without a loud jingling noise being heard by everyone in the vicinity. Perhaps the worst offense of this sweater was that it sang holiday songs in four different languages when a button on the sweater was pushed. 

 

“Father put your sweater on,” Jaina, William’s daughter, pleaded as she ran into the room, “it's almost time to start the festivities.” William knew at that moment he was defeated. Jaina, Violet, and even his infant son Liam all had different versions of the same sweater on. With a fake smile plastered across his face, William gave up and put the abomination of a sweater on to make his daughter happy. If nothing else it was at least a warm sweater. Jingling along William and his family went to the village square to enjoy the festivities. Most people wore some sort of ugly sweater but nothing quite beats the ones Jaina had made. Of course, he would never tell her how he really thought about these hideous things. William would just grin and bear it, for now, to make Jaina happy.  It was honestly more than his father would’ve done for him. Sometimes William wasn’t always the best father but he always tried to be better than his father was. This was one of those times he thought he was being better than the one before him.