Megan Packard Hillegas and Brandi Rivera

UGLY IS THE NEW PRETTY: Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but most people agree that a gaudy red and/or green knitted garment with an abstract of Santa throw-up covering every inch is, indeed, unattractive — except for possibly grandmas, who are often inexplicably the givers of such “gifts.” Making lemonade out of lemons, however, the ugly Christmas sweater has forged its holiday niche, with parties revolving around it. The Santa Barbara Independent celebrated the visually challenged jumpers at our annual staff holiday party. And the winner was … advertising production manager Megan Packard Hillegas (left); human resource manager Brandi Rivera came in a close second.

Happy, happy!