One year ago, Canadian Club was looking back with fondness at the Canadian origins of the ugly Christmas sweater celebrations that are now a northern hemisphere phenomenon.

In Canada in the early 2000s, a couple of blokes revived the ugly Christmas sweater as a fashion statement. It became a movement which grew from a merry gathering over eggnog to an annual ball of more than 1,000 in Vancouver. Then spread to the UK and the US and there…the (top half of the) world.

Canadian Club realised that Australia, in the bottom half of the world, was missing out on this most important national celebration and rectified the situation. With so many Aussies in Canada and Canadians in Australia, it made sense for Canadian Club to launch a bad sweater celebration here.

So the first annual Canadian Club Bad Sweater Day was held last year. The second is Friday June 24 2016.

The official way to celebrate Bad Sweater Day is to wear your ugliest “so bad it’s good” sweater on the day. Canadian Club hopes that everyone will get into the spirit with sweaters that feature obnoxious patterns, moose, snowmen and pom-poms – the daggier the better.

“Canada, USA and even the UK celebrate bad sweaters in the winter months, but in Australia, by the time it rolls around to the frosty season they stay buried under the bed in their winter woolies.  We didn’t want Aussies to miss out on the ugly fun so we decided to throw Australia its very own Bad Sweater Day during winter,” commented Tiffany Madsen, marketing manager at Canadian Club.

“Aussies have fallen in love with Canadian Club as the refreshing alternative to beer.  On Bad Sweater Day we hope our fans will embrace another one of the joys of winter and rock an ugly, preferably knitted, sweater,’’ she added.

Canadian Club is teaming up again with KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O to celebrate the big day. Fans who spend more thsn $30 on any Canadian Club product at any BWS store between May 25 and June 28 can get their own limited edition retro sweater while stocks last.

Bad Sweater Day is also expected to run rampant on social media at #CCBadSweater and @CanadianClubAus.