Ryan Reynolds ugly holiday sweater campaign for SickKids is back featuring Auston Matthews

Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds is teaming up with Maple Leafs star Austin Matthews as part of his annual ugly holiday sweater fundraiser for Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.

“Every parent knows that kids, while a magical gift from heaven, can be pr*cks,” Reynolds said in the video he posted on social media. A child covered in paint shrieks as another smothers mud on a dog’s head.

“It’s hard for kids to be pr*cks when they are sick. That’s why the work we do here at SickKids is so very important,” the Vancouver-born actor goes on to say.

This is Reynold’s fifth consecutive SickKids holiday campaign, which raised $580,000 last year, and began with a gag in 2018. Fellow actors Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal tricked him into wearing an ugly holiday sweater to a normal party.

Since then, Reynolds has sported his green and red sweater with a gigantic gold bow in the middle – which one kid in the video says he looks “so stupid in” – every year to raise money for SickKids.

Ryan Reynolds ugly holiday sweater campaign video to raise money for SickKids.

In the most recent video, Matthews makes a special appearance at SickKids. Instead of applause, a child screams, “I wanted Michael Bublé.”

Samsung Canada will match donations of up to $100,000 to SickKids made before Dec. 24 at midnight.