Winter woolies back in vogue with official Christmas Jumper Day

His reindeer jumper in Bridget Jones's Diary was the epitome of cringeworthy kitsch, the kind of thing any self-respecting man would wear only to placate a well-meaning but batty old grandma and then immediately dowse in parafin and burn the minute he got home.

Slowly but surely, over the past few years, the Christmas jumper has crept its way into our affections like Santa. In fact, this Friday has been designated as the official Christmas Jumper Day.

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It began as an ironic fashion statement, a form of fancy dress. But now they're taking over. People aren't wearing them as a joke or to spare the feelings of a dotty relative. They're doing it on purpose because they actually like them.

And even some of the big designers are making them now.

Granted, they were auctioned off for charity but the idea of someone wandering around wearing a Paul Smith jumper with a picture of a dog by a Christmas tree, or one adorned with the slogan 'Burberry with love' would be enough to have most people questioning whether they had more money than sense.

The standard pattern for a Christmas pullover is something called 'Fair Isle'. Fair Isle is named after the Shetland island of the same name where the knitting technique is from. It involves stitching coloured patterns.

They became popular when Edward VIII started wearing them while he was still just the Prince of Wales and before all that unfortunate wanting-to-marry-a-divorcee-and-abdicating business.

But the pattern can be used for more than just snowflakes and reindeer. There's a website selling jumpers with a pattern based on the Bruce Willis Die Hard movies, with little guns in place of the snowflakes, while sci-fi geeks can get hold of a Star Wars one with the Imperial Wakers. And nothing says Christmas like Chewbacca.

While it was His Majesty who might have sparked the original trend for Fair Isle, it's the significantly less than regal celebs of today who appear to be telling us that a Christmas jumper is all right.

Philip Schofield wears them, which would normally be enough to keep it consigned to the 'dads only' section at M&S.

But when the lovely Holly Willoughby is at it, along with the rapper Snoop Dog and the king of the Beliebers, Justin Bieber, then we're definitely heading for a fashion craze.

Retailers have cottoned on to the new-found love of festive knitwear, both tasteful and tasteless.

Samantha Cameron, the Prime Minister's wife, donned an almost tasteful grey jumper emblazoned with an enormous pink robin. It was in aid of Save The Children's Woolly Wonderland alongside Myleene Klass, who has a red jumper with a reindeer on it. Anyone wanting to steal SamCam's style needs to fork out £49 at John Lewis.

They are heading up a host of celebrities promoting Christmas Jumper Day in aid of Save The Children. Stacey Solomon, Gok Wan and Susan Boyle have donned woollies and are urging people to pull on a jumper on Friday and donate £1 to the charity.

For people who are not made of money, and won't be picking up a John Lewis top, there's plenty on offer on the high street.

At least it's better than a onesie.