The thrift stores are used to the calls by now. Do they have any ugly Christmas sweaters? Cliff Huxtable sweaters? Big ol' knitted sacks, preferably with bears wearing scarves?

Indeed, the once-loved, then-maligned Christmas sweater is popular again, making appearances at office parties, on Christmas cards, in frat houses and, yes, newspaper contests. Last year we asked readers to send us photos of themselves posing in the ugliest holiday sweater they could find. We got so many responses we decided to bring back the idea this year.

Christmas sweaters have been around since the invention of the loom (and probably earlier). But the celebration of the tacky Christmas sweater is a recent phenomenon, traceable in part to the 1989 classic, National Lampoon's "Christmas Vacation," in which heavily sweatered Clark Griswold was the butt of the joke.

So in honor of Clark Griswolds everywhere, we bring you the best of the worst holiday sweaters, 2007.