What's Your Outfit for the Best Time of the Year?

[Zachary]

Dear Fellow Gents,

Slowly, but unavoidably, Christmas and New Year's Eve are approaching! And, you guess it, I'm curious about what you, dear fellow Gentlemen, are wearing for these occasions.

I usually go with suit, dress shirt, and tie. In a conservative matter for Holy Night, but more extrovert for New Year's Eve. Here is my outfit for Dec 31 the other year:

If you wonder what's extrovert about it: I chose colorful "Santa Claus Suspenders" and an Ediety Knot (took me 3 hours to get it perfect – I'm afraid I'm serious).

Now I have three options what to wear this year:

1. The usual Collar-and-Tie-Thingy;
2. a Tux in black with single-breasted jacket with shawl collar; or finally
3. a Tux with an ivory jacket.

I could also combine the tux with a variety of more colorful bow ties, just like this one:

… however, for obvious reasons, this just seems a bit too … extrovert. Do you agree?

What will you be wearing during the best time of the year?

Merry Christmas,
Zach

 

[Zachary]

Here's another find that I wanted to share with you, which, while not fitting into the "Suits" section, comes in handy due to its "Christmasissity":

 

[Seb Lucas]

Christmas is not my favourite time of year and here it can get very hot, so it's jeans and a long sleeve shirt to stop the sun burning my arms. And a hat for similar reasons.

 

[Mathematicus]

Good question!

What I will wear around Christmas holidays depends on what I have to do on those days, which I spend at my hometown in Italy. Almost invariably on Christmas Eve I am playing at the night service and I have worn almost always a suit and a tie with white shirt, but in the last years as people have relaxed their dress code a lot (it's a small country village) I have sometimes switched to turtleneck and suit or sports coat and non-white shirt. This year I will probably go with a suit and tie.

On Christmas day we usually had a family lunch (about 15 people at the same table) after the morning service (to which I play again!) so I usually put a a sports coat and a pair of flannels with the same shirt of the night before but usually no tie. This year I will probably go with this tweed jacket and these trousers (which are not flannel, actually) or the same jacket and a pair of cooler cotton trousers if it is not so cold:

I'm undecided with the shirt as I'm afraid a white shirt would contrast too much but I'm not good with pairing coloured shirts. Any thought? I have a burgundy turtleneck that might work as well.

New Year's Eve is a whole different story and again it depends a lot on the type of evening I'm going to spend. I have been to nice restaurants with the traditional dinner until midnight and there I've worn suits and ties, but I've also been with some friends in a home, just eating together and waiting the new year and in that case I've worn very casual clothes like cotton trousers and sweater. Other times I spent the evening at home with my family, no dress code in that case!
This year I will most definitely spend the New Year's Eve at my home here in England with my wife-to-be. Not sure whether some friends are coming or not but anyway we are dressing on the casual side without being slob at least for dinner. I might wear a pair of gray glen check trousers with a marine blue blazer and a white shirt.

 

[Edward]

I'm always up for black tie, but I'd never wear a DJ with a coloured bow. I have worn white with a DJ before (a deliberate touch for a 20s night), but never colours. Coloured bows I reserve for wearing with regular lounged suits and blazers.

Christmas Day itself is not really a big dressy day... I'll throw on a jacket and trousers (maybe a tie or bow or not, depends on how I feel) on years when we're with the family on the Old Country, but as this year we're doing an early January trip for the family instead, Christmas day will be a day spent entirely indoors in pajamas with the cat. My church does have a service on the 25th, but I fear I'm not sufficiently devout to walk the six mile round trip in the absence of public transport on the day; instead,we'll be attending midnight mass at St Paul's Cathedral with members of my church group, then we'll walk home from that in the early hours, probably get up about 10am to put the lunch on...

New Year I've worn all sorts at, from black tie through white tie, Prince Harry in Afrika Korps Uniform, and all points in between. Depends on the event. Don't much go in for it in recent years - NYE is broadly meaningless to me (I think in academic years, always will), but if it's not overpriced and there's a fun party with friends.... This year, we'll be having an early night I'm sure because we fly the next morning; our trip to my parents' this year will cost 25% of the last one because we're flying out on 1st January rather than 23rd December. This being so, I'll spend NYE in pajamas and NYD in, doubtless, some slacks and a blazer as the most comfortable way of flying. Likely a belt since the £$^ing security at airports has now stated asking me to remove braces as well!!

 

[Edward]

Over Christmas week, there's a fair chance I'll whip out the kilt with an aran sweater, though.

 

[GHT]

Christmas is not my favourite time of year.

Nor mine, we are fed a diet of Christmas right back from early July. Book your Christmas table before it's sold out and all that. Christmas has lost it's original story, last year I was actually admonished by a shop keeper for asking if they had any Christmas cards with a religious meaning. She told me, emphatically , that Christmas should be all inclusive. So when I said "but excluding Christians," she said that I might try elsewhere.

Now that I've got that off my chest I must say that Christmas is a time to dress up. We have no less than seven gigs booked between now and Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve itself we shall attend the midnight service. On Christmas day we are dining out with a number of very good friends and then come New Year's Eve we are booked to attend a wonderful New Year's Eve Ball. Dressing up, you had better believe it.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Christmas Day? Probably a rich tweed jacket that has a subtle red pattern in it, together with a white shirt, dark brown trousers, and a red bow tie. Christmas Eve... I’m thinking a bit more formal. A black suit with a red, white and black striped tie and a red pocket square. Hmmm. I’ve got a black German wide brimmed fedora that I could also wear... but then I’ll be in church most of the evening so I’m not sure the hat is very functional in that situation.

 

[Benny Holiday]

I envy you good fellows being able to dress up for the holidays. I will wear a tie and dress shirt with dress slacks and braces to Church, and probably a panama hat for the ride there and back; it's too hot for a jacket here. The rest of the holidays will be Hawaiian shirt with said panama hat, slacks and two-tone shoes or white bucks, like when I cook a BBQ for NYE.

It's a sad state of affairs, isn't it GHT, when the blissfully ignorant masses celebrate mas, and strive to leave Christ out of it.

 

[Mathematicus]

Likely a belt since the £$^ing security at airports has now stated asking me to remove braces as well!!

Airport security strictness (and manners) seems to vary a lot between airports. Probably it depends on the shift of agents you catch too.
I've flown from London Stansted many times in the past years and I've found them extensively unpolite and very strict on some things; now I rarely fly from there but to be honest last time wasn't so bad as they allowed me a bag with some fresh fruit in it (which had never happened before).
Quite surprisingly, from London Luton you still get a rather rude treatment but they are not very strict.
My favourite airport so far is Birmingham International: very well-lit (in contrast with almost any airport securety area, which is usually dark) and staff is very friendly and helpful.

Christmas has lost it's original story, last year I was actually admonished by a shop keeper for asking if they had any Christmas cards with a religious meaning. She told me, emphatically , that Christmas should be all inclusive. So when I said "but excluding Christians," she said that I might try elsewhere.

I'm not a particularly devoted Catholic but I absolutely agree with your statement here. The sad side of the story is that even the religious authorities are very willing to be "all-inclusive" nowadays (at least Catholic Church in Italy) and in the name of some "respect for diversity" they have gradually erased most of traditional Christianity in any religious manifestation.
The only thing that remains the same as 100 years ago is the absolute bigotry in terms of moral.

 

[GHT]

It's a sad state of affairs, isn't it GHT, when the blissfully ignorant masses celebrate mas, and strive to leave Christ out of it.

I'm not a particularly devoted Catholic but I absolutely agree with your statement here. The sad side of the story is that even the religious authorities are very willing to be "all-inclusive" nowadays (at least Catholic Church in Italy) and in the name of some "respect for diversity" they have gradually erased most of traditional Christianity in any religious manifestation.
The only thing that remains the same as 100 years ago is the absolute bigotry in terms of moral.

There was a time about twenty years ago, local authorites were doing their best to score politically correct points by sidelining Christmas. The term that they came up with was: Winterval.
Defence of Christmas came from an unexpected quarter. The Secular Society pointed out that long before Christmas, pagans celebrated Yuletide. In the Christian conversion, Christmastide, as it was, hung rather well on the Yuletide dates, the transition was hardly noticed. Winterval was dropped.

 

[Edward]

There was a time about twenty years ago, local authorites were doing their best to score politically correct points by sidelining Christmas. The term that they came up with was: Winterval.

There is some truth in this, but it's mostly urban myth. The commonest version pins it on Birmingham Council; reality is that someone on the council did suggest it as a generic to cover a whole season of celebrations from Dival through to Chinese New Year for which lights and decor were desired, but it was neverf officially adopted.

I'm all for an open and inclusive Christmas - my favourite local sign last year was one advertising halal Christmas turkeys - but it would be sad indeed if anyone felt the need to exclude in order to include, whether as a reflex reaction to those who sought to exclude in the first place or no. I like religious themed cards, myself - though I must admit my favourite was a cheeky picture of Himself with the strap line "It's all about me!"

 

[GHT]

You're right about excluding others to be inclusive, Nadia Eweida was a case in point. She was the British Airways employee who won a case against her employer after being dismissed for refusing to remove a cross and chain necklace. Did I read that you lecture in law, Edward? How do these companies manage to get into such a hole? I have always thought that it's sound advice, when you're in a hole, stop digging.