My friend gave me a Snuggie for Christmas, which is a blanket with arms, which is something I routinely have made fun of every time we’ve passed them in the store, which is why I was given such a thing.
According to the official web site, the Snuggie is a “pop culture phenomenon.” Mainly, though, it’s a blanket with arms.
Mine is blue.
It came with a free book light.
Upon arriving back at my apartment, I opened the box and realized I had no idea how to use it. That’s right: I didn’t know, exactly, how to use it. I have education and skills, but this product eluded me.
The people on the box were using it like a quasi-clothing device, a sort of extended poncho.
I just didn’t see it. It was a big blanket. With arms.
My first attempt to use it made me look like Gandalf, because I had it on backwards. It seemed too much like a hospital gown otherwise, but there seemed no other way around that effect.
“You might find this hard to believe,” I later told my friend, “but I couldn’t figure out how to use it. The box contained no instructions.”
“It’s a blanket with arms.”
“You don’t know how much that confuses me,” I replied.
Was usage of the arms a requirement?
There was a photo on the box of some people sitting at a sporting event, wearing their Snuggies like clothing and/or a bib, cheering. They also somehow looked like they were wearing a turtle neck shirt. I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be going out in public with my Snuggie. As someone noted on my Facebook page after I announced the gift, he wanted a Snuggie, but didn’t want anyone to know it.
I don’t know how those people at the sporting event pulled it off. I put my Snuggie on in a similar manner as they, and it draped down and dragged across the floor. It would be impossible to walk in.
How are the people on the box seemingly mobile in their Snuggie? I wondered. I checked the box again. One size fits all, the box read. How is that even possible? I thought. Is it clothing or a blanket? Do blankets come with sizing phraseology?
I spent a few minutes trying to determine the classification of the Snuggie.
I spent a few more minutes trying to determine how it was different than capes, shawls, cloaks, and other traditional outerwear.
I decided that the Snuggie was, basically, a blanket with arms.
I just can’t do any better than that.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
“Snuggie” is what we used to call an extremely impolite juvenile custom involving underwear. So when my daughter said she was giving her grandmother a snuggie, I said, “This, I gotta see!”
Mary Katherine Ham did an instructional video on the Snuggie that may be helpful.
What David says was true in my childhood, too. They call it a wedgie now, but back then it was a snuggie.