Ryan Reynolds kicks off 2021 holiday sweater campaign for SickKids

Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds is kicking off another holiday campaign for The Hospital for Sick Children–and this year he is making sure that front-line workers don’t feel left out.

It all started in 2018, when the Vancouver-born star was tricked into wearing an ugly Christmas sweater to a party by fellow actors Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal.

In photos posted to social media at the time, Reynolds is seen wearing a sweater with a large, shiny gold bow while Jackman and Gyllenhaal laugh. The party, Reynolds would later find out, was not an ugly sweater-themed event.

Since then, Reynolds has used that same sweater design in a campaign to raise money for Toronto’s SickKids Foundation.

More than $300,000 was raised in just a few weeks in 2021 following the release of an animated video that simulated his very own holiday prank. The animation told the story of a red and green sweater with a large bow that gets passed up by every customer, except for one man who is looking for an outfit for a party that specifies “fun” attire.

This year, Reynolds kicked off the campaign with a short 50-second video on Youtube in which he called on people to donate to SickKids.

In the video, the actor is seen wearing the famous ugly sweater, which has a tag that says ” To Hugh and Deb.”

“The past couple of years my beloved, yet aesthetically challenged, holiday sweater has become a symbol for how much we all care about children and SickKids hospital,” Ryan says. “But this year, I want to recognize the doctors and nurses too.”

“And that means that, with all due respect to a certain iconic trio from the 90s, I do want scrubs.”

The video then shows frontline workers unwrapping boxes to find t-shirts that have the same pattern as Reynold’s ugly sweater. The shirts are green with a giant gold bow printed on it. They even have the sweater’s signature blank name tag.

SickKids said that 5,000 staff will receive the replica t-shirts and a number of patients will also receive festive sweater-themed blankets.

The campaign is scheduled to run until Christmas Eve, and individual donations made before midnight will be matched by Samsung Canada, up to $100,000.

“Every child who has to be at SickKids over the holidays appreciates all the joy we can bring them,” the foundation’s website says. “ So please—help Ryan, and give generously this holiday season.”