View photos Giants players Brennan Menell (left) and Tyler Benson rock the Ugly Christmas Sweater jersey (Vancouver Giants photo) More

On the 12th day till Christmas, the Western Hockey League's Vancouver Giants and Saskatoon Blades brought the Ugly Christmas Sweater fad to the ice

Granted, at a glance, aren't Ugly Christmas Sweaters supposed to be ugly? This is hardly coming from a fashionista, but the Blades actually looked sleek by adapting their two shades of blue into a Winter Wonderland-themed shirts complete with snowflake piping around the arms. Saskatoon wasn't able to win its game, but it did collect thousands of stuffed animals and winter hats during its Teddy Bear and Toque Toss night.

Both teams also had matching socks, presumably since you can't have an ugly Christmas sweater usually comes with a pair of socks made from the leftover yarn.

The Giants, who incidentally joined the WHL in 2001 when ugly sweater parties became a thing in North America, had a jersey that really went all out to be over-the-top ironic. The garish garments were designed to create an optical illusion of looking like one of those itchy wool sweaters we were all forced to put on so not to hurt smeone's feelings. Throw in pine trees, Santa Claus and reindeer on the arms all while maintaining readable numerals on the arms and back, and it's busier than the advertisement-covered jerseys worn by European teams.



That's not to say one is better than the other. There's two paths and both teams' designers seemed really committed to the bit. Western League teams are allowed to wear a special jersey twice a season; suffice to say Saskatoon and Vancouver really made it count.



Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.