I have been given Christmas jumpers for forty years. This is the first one I have ever bought for myself, and the first I have written a letter about.
I have been given Christmas jumpers for forty years. This is the first one I have ever bought for myself, and the first I have written a letter about.
Six things these two jumpers get right that forty years of pompoms, batteries and sensible navy never did, from a woman who ended last Christmas holding a stranger’s donkey.
Maggie Whitfield · Customer · Cheshire · 5 min read
You had better know who this is from. I am Maggie, I am 67, and I live in Cheshire with my husband Geoff and a labrador who believes he is the head of the household. I have opened a Christmas jumper most years since I was married, and I have never thought any of them was worth writing to anybody about. I had a good deal to say about some of them, but not in writing. Then last December I went to watch a sheep, and I have changed my mind.
The jumpers I am writing about are from the cosy jumper collection at Manchester Boutique, a small British boutique that has been quietly finding women like me the things we did not know we were allowed to have for a few years now. One is a Christmas jumper called the Holly and one is a pink roll neck called the Rose. When the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for other women to read, I said yes, on the condition that I could be completely honest in it.
The sheep was my friend Sylvia’s granddaughter, Grace, who is six. Their church puts on a live nativity every year in a barn at a farm outside Neston, on the Wirral, and last year it fell on the Sunday before Christmas. Sylvia asked me to come and clap. There were bales to sit on, a lot of very large coats, and a donkey borrowed for the afternoon who had his own views about the shepherds. Holding his rope was a woman of about my age, with her coat hung over the gate, because she said he would eat the toggles. She had on a bright red jumper with rows of little green Christmas trees across it, and one tree that was silver and kept catching the lamp every time the donkey pulled her sideways. I have sat through a great many Christmas jumpers. I had never before looked at one and thought, well, that is rather nice. After the last carol she asked if I would mind holding the donkey while she found her coat. I held him, and when she came back I asked her, plainly, where it was from. Her name was Thelma. She told me. Read on.
Thelma and the donkey. Sylvia took this one, and I made her send it to me.
Here is what forty years of Christmas jumpers taught me. They come in two piles. There is the joke pile, which is what you get given: the reindeer with the red pompom nose, the one with the bells on, the one that needs two batteries and flashes when you sit down. You wear it once for the photograph and it goes in the bottom drawer. And there is the sensible pile, which is what you buy yourself: plain navy, plain beige, nothing to see here, no Christmas in it at all.
For forty Christmases I chose between looking daft and looking as if I had come to read the meter. Thelma was being dragged about by a donkey, and she looked lovely.
I ordered that same night, from the car, with Geoff driving. I got the Holly, because of Thelma, and the Rose, because she told me that was the one she lived in for the rest of the winter. I have now had the Rose through a whole winter and the Holly out at every chance I have been given, and it comes down to six things.
The morning it came. Geoff looked at it for some time and said, is that it, does it not do anything?
Christmas trees, and nothing else going on
The Holly has rows of little green Christmas trees on it, and that is all. They run in straight lines across the front and on along the sleeves, each one the same simple shape, with plenty of plain red between them. There is no pompom, no bell and no battery. It looks like Christmas without looking as if you lost a bet. You could wear it to the carol service and to the butcher’s, and the butcher’s I have already done.
My grandchildren asked me if it lit up. I said no, and that is rather the point of it.
Barbara H., PuddingtonOne tree that catches the light
This is the part that sold me in the barn. One tree, up in the top row near the shoulder, is made of silver sequins with a tiny gold star on its tip. Just the one. I would not have thanked you for a jumper covered in sequins at my age, but one small tree that shimmers when you turn round is about the right amount of fuss. It is the bit people lean in to look at.
The one silver tree. It does all the talking, so nothing else has to.
Just enough sparkle. The girl in the Co-op said it was the nicest Christmas jumper she had seen all year.
Maureen P., Thornton HoughA plain round neck and room to move
The neck is a simple round one with a neat ribbed edge, the sleeves are long with ribbed cuffs, and the fit is relaxed, so it hangs nicely rather than clinging to anything I would prefer it did not. It comes in three colours, the red, a black and a green, in sizes UK 8 up to UK 16. I wear it with my jeans. I am told it also goes with a skirt, but I had the donkey in mind.
I am not a slim woman and I do not do clingy. This one just sits comfortably and lets me get on with the dinner.
Hilary G., NessThe roll neck for the rest of the winter
Now the other one, because a Christmas jumper is no use to anybody in February. The Rose is a soft blush pink with a tall roll neck that folds over on itself, ribbed all the way round. On a cold morning with the labrador I pull it up and it keeps the chill off the back of my neck, which saves me going back to look for a scarf. I wore it through most of last January and February, and I got more use out of it than from anything else in the wardrobe.
The back step, first thing. He is checking the garden has not been moved in the night.
I usually find roll necks strangle me. This one sits up nicely and folds over soft. I have now bought it in two colours.
Gillian F., Little SuttonProper cables, front and sleeves
The whole front of the Rose is big twisted cables, the rope sort, running top to bottom, and they carry on down both sleeves to a deep ribbed cuff, with a matching ribbed hem to finish it off. It is the kind of pattern my mother would have spent a winter on, and it makes it look like a good deal more than a jumper off the internet. It looks after itself with jeans or a skirt, and there are twelve colours if pink is not for you. June has already had a good look at the sky blue.
Folded on my chair, which he has decided is also his chair.
Beautiful thick cable pattern. My sister thought I had had it made and I did not put her right.
Rosemary A., CapenhurstSoft, and seventeen to choose from
I will not tell you what they are made of, because the boutique does not say and I will not guess. What I can tell you is that both of them are soft and warm to wear, with none of the scratch I remember from the reindeer. And these two are only the start. There are seventeen designs in the collection, among them a polka dot, a floral, wide stripes, a half zip and a button-up cable cardigan. I have put a green Holly away for my sister June this Christmas, because she has a reindeer of her own and I think she has suffered enough.
The pair of them. Trees for December, roll neck for the long haul after it.
So soft I wore it to bed the first night. Bought another two as presents before the month was out.
Wendy L., SaughallThese jumpers, against what is in your bottom drawer
You can carry on with the reindeer once a year and navy the rest of the time, as I did for forty years. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Bells, pompoms and batteries
Worn once, for the photograph
A joke at your own expense
Packed away by Boxing Day
No use at all in February
Neat rows of trees and one silver one
Fit for church and the butcher’s
Something you chose for yourself
Soft and warm, with a relaxed fit
A cable roll neck for after Christmas
About the price
The Holly is £34.95, down from £70.00, and the Rose is £37.95, down from £76.00. Across the collection they run from £34.95 to £41.95, depending on the design.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that these are in their sale while the winter stock goes, and once a colour sells through in a size, that one is gone. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that I have been given far worse for far more, and I never once wore those twice.
And here is the thing I would tell you if we were sitting on the same bale. I left it until the Sunday before Christmas, so my Holly did not get to me until the new year. I wore it for the first time on Twelfth Night, taking the tree down. It was a lovely jumper and the wrong end of Christmas. Do not do what I did.
I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real people rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women’s words.
If your Christmas jumpers have only ever been a joke somebody else was having, this is where I would start. Have a look while your size is still there, and do it before December rather than after, as I can personally recommend. Grace has been promoted to an angel this year, I am told. I shall be on the same bale, in the Holly, and if that donkey wants holding I am dressed for it.
Maggie
THE COSY JUMPER COLLECTION
- Seventeen designs in the collection
- Holly: rows of Christmas trees and one sequin tree
- Rose: cable knit with a soft roll neck
- Soft and warm for the colder months
- Holly in 3 colours, Rose in 12
- UK 8 to UK 16 · Free UK delivery
Sale on now. The winter stock is already going.