Jacob Jude Mixson, a junior at Brookland-Cayce High, won the school’s marching band ugly sweater contest yesterday, in overwhelming fashion, according to the sousaphone player and affirmed by his nearby peers lined up for the annual West Columbia/Cayce Parade of Lights. “I woke up this morning and I said, ‘Grandma, I need an ugly Christmas sweater and she said, ‘I have a Christmas sweater but I don’t do ugly,’ and then she brought me this,” said Mixson about his grandmother Toni Rockwell.

Content copyright 2019 by Sean Rayford

About the author:

Sean has been photographing SC since 1997 when he joined the Gamecock Newspaper at the University of South Carolina. He came to school to study computer science — but those classes sucked. After receiving a degree in Media Arts, Sean worked as an assistant manager at a record store, and began freelancing with the local daily newspaper. After few years and multiple gun-point hold-ups, Sean found a job tending bar at a small live music venue, balancing the service industry with freelance photography for over a decade. He lost his job after telling his boss off at the bar one night, and took on photography full time in 2015. Since then, Sean has become a regular contributor to Getty Images, The Associated Press, The New York Times and many others. You can see more of his work at www.seanrayford.com.

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